Science
Insight-HXMT / Huiyan
Catalogued as HXMT (HUIYAN)
X-ray Observatory · Chinese Academy of Sciences / CNSA
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China's first X-ray astronomy satellite — Huiyan means 'Insight' or 'Sharp Eyes' — scans the sky for X-ray sources from black holes, neutron stars, and gamma-ray bursts. In 2017, just three months after launch, it detected the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event (GW170817), the collision of two neutron stars 130 million light-years away. This observation marked China's arrival at the frontier of multi-messenger astronomy.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 308–335 mi (496–538 km)
- Inclination
- 43.0°
- One orbit
- 94.8 minutes15.2 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 42758
- Int’l designator
- 2017-034A
- Launched
- 2017
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
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