The Hard X-Ray Modulation Telescope

Abstract

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), dubbed as Insight-HXMT after its launch on June 15, 2017, is China’s first X-ray astronomical satellite. It carries three slat-collimated X-ray telescopes: the hard X-ray telescope (HE) that contains 18 NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na) phoswich scintillation detectors for observations in the 20–250 keV energy range, the medium energy X-ray telescope (ME) with 1728 Si-PIN detectors for 5–30 keV, and the low energy X-ray telescope (LE) with 96 SCD detectors for the 1–15 keV energy range. With a field of view (FOV) of typically a few degrees and detection areas of 5100 cm 2, 952 cm 2, and 384 cm 2 for HE, ME, and LE, respectively, Insight-HXMT is designed to perform pointing and scanning observations and can also monitor gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) of energies in the range of 0.2–3 MeV by using the active shield CsI(Na) scintillators of HE. In this chapter we give an overview of the mission, especially the instruments of the science payload and their performance.KeywordsHard X-rayCollimated telescopePhoswich scintillatorSi-PINSwept charge deviceX-ray binariesScan imaging