Introducing a special collection of papers in the Journal of High Energy Astrophysics on the Early Results of China's 1st X-ray Astronomy Satellite: Insight-HXMT

TL;DR

This collection of papers reports on the early performance, calibration, and initial scientific observations of China's first X-ray astronomy satellite, Insight-HXMT, highlighting its capabilities across a broad X-ray energy range.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive performance and calibration results of Insight-HXMT, along with initial scientific findings from its observations.

Findings

Insight-HXMT has successfully operated with broad energy coverage from 1-250 keV.

Calibration results confirm the satellite's effective performance for X-ray astronomy.

Initial observations include studies of binary systems and the Galactic plane survey.

Abstract

Insight-HXMT is the first Chinese X-ray astronomical mission, launched successfully on June 15, 2017, from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Insight-HXMT was designed to have a broad energy coverage in X-rays, from 1-250 keV, with excellent timing and adequate energy resolution at soft X-rays, and the largest effective area at hard X-rays. Here, we present a collection of papers of the Journal of High Energy Astrophysics on the Early Results of China's 1st X-ray Astronomy Satellite Insight-HXMT. These papers cover the in-orbit performance, the background model, and all calibration results, together with several first results on observations of binaries and details on the Galactic plane survey.