China's first space X-ray astronomy satellite launched successfully!

Electronic enthusiasts 8:00: China's first space X-ray astronomical satellite - Hard X-ray Modula TIon Telescope satellite was successfully launched at 11 o'clock on June 15th. Many friends will say that the name of the satellite "hard X-ray modulation telescope", including its English "Hard X-ray ModulaTIon Telescope" and the English abbreviation "HXMT", is difficult to read, let alone understand what it is used for. It seems that it is really a star, it is very difficult to understand.

Photo of the HXMT launch site test team and the ready-to-go HXMT satellite (photo courtesy of the author)

You must have a lot of questions about this satellite. I will answer them one by one.

Let's start with its name.

The hard X-rays in the name are relative to the soft X-rays. The so-called hard X-ray is a relatively high-energy electromagnetic wave (20-250 keV), which has a strong penetrating power, and it is used for human fluoroscopy in hospitals. And its corresponding lower energy (about 10 keV or less) electromagnetic wave is called soft X-ray.

Hard X-rays have a very short wavelength, so it is difficult to image with optical telescopes. Therefore, one of the most common methods in the world for the detection of hard X-rays is to use a collimating telescope to detect them. However, the shortcomings of collimating telescopes It is because it will lose a lot of information to detect photons, which leads to low accuracy of detection by this method.

In the 1990s, Academician Li Wei and Professor Wu Mei of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed to use nonlinear mathematical means to directly solve the imaging data of the detector array. This direct demodulation method can make low-resolution Non-imaging detectors enable high-resolution imaging, and the "modulation" in the modulation telescope is derived from this algorithm.

In order to solve the problem of hard X-ray modulation telescope satellite reading, the HXMT scientists team can be said to be painstaking. In the case of wide-ranging social names, they finally brewed a good name called "Guiyan", the English name " Insight".

This name also represents the wish of the HXMT scientist team - to commemorate one of the founders of high-energy astrophysics in China, Academician He Zehui, hoping that this space telescope can look for the beautiful scenery of high-energy objects like her eyes. At the same time, the HXMT satellite is also like a torch. It can find black holes through the obstruction of interstellar matter and explore the inner beauty of the extreme universe.

As for her nickname, continue to look down, and then reveal it later...

Our universe looks mysterious and quiet. In fact, there are violent explosions and evolutions everywhere. There are black holes that devour substances, the last magnificent fireworks of stellar life, and the most intense explosions in the depths of the universe. These high-energy astrophysics The process radiates X-rays and even gamma rays outwards, so it is possible to study the properties of these objects and the behavior of radiation by observing X-rays and gamma rays.

Everyone knows that all objects radiate electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic waves can be divided into: radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma rays. The electromagnetic waves that the universe reaches the earth, block through the atmosphere, and finally reach the surface of the earth. Mainly visible light. Since X-rays and gamma rays cannot penetrate the Earth's atmosphere, it is only possible to use the space telescope to observe the behavior of various celestial bodies in the universe.

The HXMT satellite we launched today is in the beautiful Milky Way. The subjects studied are dense celestial bodies and explosions such as black holes, neutron stars and gamma-ray bursts.

The black hole, a mysterious celestial body that has long been known to the public, has a strong gravitational field. It can engulf everything including light. Black holes are a prophecy of general relativity. We can study black holes to verify general relativity. Since the density and temperature of the substance near the black hole are high, the main radiation generated is in the X-ray band. In fact, the first black hole Cygnus X-1 discovered by astronomers was discovered using X-ray astronomical telescopes.

Neutron stars are the product of supernova explosions in the late stages of some stellar evolution. The density is very high and the surface magnetic field is very strong. Isolated neutron stars and neutron stars in the binary system can emit strong X-rays. For the X-ray observation of the neutron star, the surface magnetic field strength and the like can be measured.

The gamma ray burst is a phenomenon in which the intensity of gamma rays from a certain direction in the sky suddenly increases and then rapidly weakens. It is the second largest explosion after the big bang; the merger of two dense celestial bodies It is also possible to generate gravitational waves and gamma-ray bursts. Therefore, observing gamma-ray bursts is an important way to detect and study electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves.

Our HXMT satellite has a total weight of 2,500kg and runs on a low-altitude orbit of 550km and an inclination of 43 degrees. The design life is 4 years, including large-day scanning, fixed-point, small-day scanning and new gamma-ray bursts. Monitoring mode of operation.

It is equipped with four payloads: high-energy X-ray telescope (HE), medium-energy X-ray telescope (ME), low-energy X-ray telescope (LE) and space environmental monitor (SEM). It is a new milestone in the field of space science research in China to observe X-ray/hard X-rays in the energy range of 1~250 keV and monitor the hard X-ray/soft gamma ray burst of 200 keV-3 MeV.

Space X-rays and gamma astronomy are frontier areas of international competition. At present, nearly 10 advanced X-ray and gamma-ray space observation devices in the United States, Europe, Japan, India and other countries and regions are running, and major astronomical discoveries are continuously obtained.

Compared with developed countries, China's space science is still in its infancy. Compared with these international telescopes, the HXMT satellite has distinctive features and unique features: wide-band X-ray scanning survey capability with large sky area and large effective area; fixed-area observation capability with large area, wide band and high time resolution. It is the largest area of ​​the world's largest hard X-ray / soft gamma ray energy segment detector.

It took nearly 20 years from the HXMT satellite to the project. This task was hard-won and realized the ideals of the old, middle and young scientists to build their own space astronomical satellite. The HXMT satellite development team feels like this satellite. It is difficult to express words in words for your own children.

Her launch is like a beautiful little fairy flying in the sky, patrolling the Milky Way, capturing the X-ray signal of the black hole, pulsing the pulsed neutron star, and monitoring the gamma-ray burst from the depths of the universe. Yes, we gave her a nickname. "Little Fairy" to express her love and good wishes to the HXMT development team.

HXMT satellites are expected to achieve important original scientific results after successful orbital operations, such as the discovery of new black holes and neutron stars; new properties can be given for the nature of black holes and neutron stars such as the magnetic field, quality of neutron stars, the quality of black holes, and rotation. Measure the results to see why they have a variety of activities; and expect to see hundreds of gamma-ray bursts a year, and so on.

In 2007, High Energy proposed the X-ray Time-varying and Polarization Detection Satellite (XTP) as a follow-up task for HXMT. At present, the XTP project has attracted the participation and support of nearly 20 developed countries from Europe, America and Japan. It is expected to become a large-scale international cooperative science project initiated and led by China in the history of China.

eXTP satellite operation diagram

eXTP is the world's leading large-scale space observatory in the X-ray band. Its scientific goals are “one odd (black hole), two stars (neutron star, quark star), three extremes (extreme gravity, extreme density, extreme magnetic field), that is, at the extreme. Gravity, extreme density, and extreme magnetic fields test and develop the basic physical laws of black holes and neutron stars. It can accurately measure the parameters of a batch of black holes and neutron stars, and will solve a series of extreme gravity, extreme magnetic fields and extreme energy (density). ) Making breakthroughs in basic physics issues, making China's research in space X-ray astronomy and related basic physics into the international ranks.

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