HXMT (HUIYAN)

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HXMT (HUIYAN) is classified as:

Space & Earth Science

NORAD ID: 42758

Int'l Code: 2017-034A

Perigee: 541.5 km

Apogee: 554.9 km

Inclination: 43.0 °

Period: 95.5 minutes

Semi major axis: 6919 km

RCS: Unknown

Launch date: June 15, 2017
Source: People's Republic of China (PRC)
Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China (JSC)

HXMT (HUIYAN, Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope) is China's first X-ray astronomy satellite, designed to survey the Milky Way galaxy for black holes and pulsars, and detect gamma-ray bursts, the most violent explosions in the universe. The 5,500-pound (2,500-kilogram) spacecraft is designed for a four-year mission. Its three X-ray instruments, sorted to observe low, medium and high-energy X-rays, are sensitive to 1,000 to 250,000 electron volts, an energy range that encompasses the energy of a medical X-ray. Unlike X-ray telescopes launched by NASA and the European Space Agency, China's Huiyan mission does not use grazing mirrors, which must be extremely flat to reflect high-frequency X-ray waves. The observing method, called demodulation, would reconstruct the image of X-ray sources by using data from relatively simple non-imaging detectors, such as a telescope with ‘collimators' that collects and records X-ray photons parallel to a specified direction.