The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) Mission

摘要

HXMT is an X-ray astronomy satellite consisting of three slat-collimated instruments, the High Energy X-ray Instrument (HE), the Medium Energy X-ray Instrument (ME), and the Low Energy X-ray Instrument (LE). HE is sensitive in 20-250 keV. It contains 18 individual cylindrical NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na) phoswich modules, each with an area of 283.5 cm～2 and a field of view (FOV) of 5.7° × 1.1° (FWHM) each. ME is sensitive in 5-30 keV. It contains 3 individual Si-PIN detector arrays with an FOV of 5.7° × 1.1° each, and the total collection area is 952 cm～2. LE uses the Swept Charge Device as the detector which is sensitive in 1-15 keV. LE also contains 3 individual detector arrays each with two kinds of FOVs, 5.7° × 1.1° and 5.7° × 2.2° , so as to study the cosmic X-ray background in this energy band. The total collecting area of LE is 384 cm～2. HXMT will perform a broad band (1-250 keV) X-ray all-sky imaging survey with both high sensitivity and high spatial resolution, as well as making pointed observations of X-ray sources to study their broadband spectroscopic and multi-wavelength temporal properties in details. The 3-σ continuum sensitivity of HXMT is about 0.5 mCrab (@100 keV, 10~5s). HXMT was proposed in 1994 and is scheduled to be launched around 2010. The designed lifetime of HXMT is 4 years.