The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) launch by CZ-4B rocket
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.
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]
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).