Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope

Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) also known as Insight (Chinese: 慧眼)[3] is a Chinese X-ray space observatory, launched on June 15, 2017[2] to observe black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei and other phenomena based on their X-ray and gamma-ray emissions.[4] It is based on the JianBing 3 imagery reconnaissance satellite series platform.

Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope

Mission type	Astronomy
Operator	CAS / IHEP
COSPAR ID	2017-034A
SATCAT no.	42758[1]
Website	http://www.hxmt.org/
Mission duration	Elapsed: 3 years, 2 months, 2 days[2]
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass	2,800 kg (6,200 lb)[2]
Dimensions	2.0 × 2.0 × 2.8 m (6.6 × 6.6 × 9.2 ft)[2]
Start of mission
Launch date	June 14, 2017, 03:00:00 (2017-06-14UTC03) UTC [2]
Rocket	Long March 4B[2]
Launch site	603 Launch Pad of the LC43 Launch Complex, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center[2]
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric[1]
Regime	Low Earth[1]
Semi-major axis	6,920 km (4,300 mi)[1]
Eccentricity	0.0006597[1]
Perigee altitude	545 km (339 mi)[1]
Apogee altitude	554.1 km (344.3 mi)[1]
Inclination	43.0°[1]
Period	95.5 minutes[1]
Mean motion	15.079 rev/day[1]
Epoch	2017-06-22 11:32:39 UTC[1]

The project, a joint collaboration of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tsinghua University, has been under development since 2000.

Payload

The main scientific instrument is an array of 18 NaI(Tl)/CsI(na) slat-collimated "phoswich" scintillation detectors, collimated to 5.7°×1° overlapping fields of view.[5] The main NaI detectors have an area of 286 cm² each, and cover the 20–200 keV energy range. Data analysis is planned to be by a direct algebraic method, "direct demodulation",[6] which has shown promise in de-convolving the raw data into images while preserving excellent angular and energy resolution.

The satellite has three payloads, the high energy X-ray Telescope (20–250 keV), the medium energy X-ray telescope (5–30 keV), and the low energy X-ray telescope (1–15 keV)[2]

See also

• X-ray astronomy
• X-ray astronomy satellite

References

1. HXMT (HUIYAN)
2. Rui C. Barbosa (14 June 2017). "China launches X-ray telescope via Long March 4B". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
3. "China launches space telescope to search for black holes, pulsars - Xinhua | English.news.cn". news.xinhuanet.com.
4. Jones, Andrew (8 September 2016). "Tiangong-2 to launch next week in step towards Chinese space station". gbtimes. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
5. HXMT.cn, Configuration Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (Hard X-ray telescope design) c.2004
6. HXMT.cn, The direct demodulation method Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (Imaging by direct deconvolution) c.2004