"Guiyan" satellite released a batch of scientific achievements

[ Instrument Network Instrument Development ] The research team based on the scientists of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has used the "Goggles" - Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) satellite to carry out a series of high-precision, high-frequency black-hole and neutron star X-ray binaries. A fixed number of observations have achieved a number of important results. At the press conference of the first China Space Science Conference held on October 25th, the “Guiyan” satellite project team interpreted these results.

An X-ray binary star is a binary system consisting of a black hole or a neutron star and a normal star. The material of a normal star falls into a black hole or a neutron star in a strong gravitational force, forming a mass disk (accumulation disk) that rotates around the black hole and the neutron star at a high speed. X-ray radiation. The fast optical and energy spectrum of X-ray binary stars is the main probe for studying the dynamic process and strong magnetic field, as well as the dynamic process and radiation process of matter under strong gravitational field and strong magnetic field.

The Goggles satellite is equipped with three scientific payload and space environment monitors, namely high-energy X-ray telescope, medium-energy X-ray telescope and low-energy X-ray telescope. The observation energy zone is 1-250 keV. Compared with foreign X-ray satellites, Goggle Satellite has the outstanding advantages of covering energy band width, maximum effective area of ​​high-energy X-ray energy segment, high time resolution, small detection dead time, and no photon accumulation effect observed by strong sources. It has a unique ability to study the rapid light-changing of celestial multi-energy X-rays. It can explore the area closer to the black hole horizon or the surface of the neutron star than before, and open up the study of black hole, neutron star X-ray binary star and other celestial hard X-ray rapid light changes and energy spectrum. A new window for features.

Scientists use Goggles satellites to perform a series of observations that increase the energy ceiling of the quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) phenomenon of black hole systems from 30 kiloelectron volts (keV) to 100 keV, opening up a new window for studying black hole systems; The highest energy kilohertz QPO was found in a cosmic X-ray source Scorpio X-1, indicating that it originated from non-thermal high-energy physics, posing a serious challenge to the rationality of the current most popular kilohertz QPO origin model; The sudden change of the accretion disk state when the neutron star X-ray binary star is at a specific value, which proves that the radiation pressure of the light causes the structure of the accretion disk to be abrupt. This theory has been proposed for nearly half a century; the first thermonuclear surface of the neutron star surface was observed for the first time. The rapid cooling of X-ray photons "rain showers" on high temperature electrons with temperatures up to several hundred million degrees provides a "single" probe for studying the radiation and formation mechanism of high temperature electrons; thermonuclears observed from a single thermonuclear storm The interaction between the storm and the accretion disk provides a new means to limit the inner radius of the accretion disk; the famous neutron star X-ray double star Hercules X-1 is determined. The energy of the X-ray cyclotron absorption line no longer decreases, which proves that the magnetic field strength near the X-ray radiation area has stabilized after a slow decline in the past 20 years, providing a new observation basis for understanding the properties of the neutron star.

Since the launch of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Base on June 15, 2017, Huieye has been in orbit for more than two years. During the period, it has carried out various observations for more than 1,000 times and obtained 29Tb of scientific data. It successfully monitored the double neutron star and the gravitational wave event. Corresponding body, completed the pulsar navigation experiment. The Gemological Science team has published (including accepted) more than 10 scientific papers in the international mainstream astrophysics journal, and more important results are being reviewed or documented.

Goggle Satellite is China's first X-ray astronomical satellite. It was first proposed by Li Wei and Wu Mei from the Institute of High Energy Physics in 1993. In 2011, the National Defense Science and Technology Industry Bureau officially approved the project, the national civil aerospace research funding and The space science pilot of the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly supported. The Institute of High Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for satellite payloads, ground application systems and scientific research. The five institutes of the Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation are satellite units. Tsinghua University is the joint research unit for satellite payloads and ground application systems. National Space Science Center of the Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University, etc. Foreign cooperation units such as the University of Dubingen in Germany participated in the scientific research work of the Goggles satellite and made important contributions.