China received on Friday the first package of data from its X-ray space telescope, Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), which was launched on Thursday, the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (IRSDE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has announced.
The package of high quality data with a total size of 2.1 gigabytes was received by the remote sensing satellite station in the northwestern city of Kashgar. The data will then be transferred to the CAS National Space Science Center.
The ground stations in Beijing's Miyun District and Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, tracked the signals from the telescope as well.
HXMT is tasked with studying celestial sources of X-rays in the Milky Way, such as pulsars and belching "big eaters."/VCG Photo
Weighing 2.5 tons, HXMT was launched via a Long March-4B rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
As China’s first space telescope for X-rays observation, HXMT is tasked with surveying the Milky Way to observe black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts.
Compared with X-ray astronomical satellites of other countries, HXMT has a larger detection area, broader energy range and wider field of view. A crucial part of China's high-energy astrophysics space research, HXMT is expected to outperform Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched by the US in 1990.
According to the IRSDE, other components of HXMT are expected to start working as planned in the following five days.
(Source: Xinhua)
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