(Photo: News.cn)

Insight: China’s first X-ray space telescope

China launched its first X-ray space telescope to observe black holes, pulsars, and gamma-ray bursts aboard the Long March-4B rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert at 11 a.m. on June 15.

The 2.5-tonne Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), dubbed Insight, was sent into an orbit of 550 kilometers above the earth. The telescope will help scientists study how pulsars can be used for spacecraft navigation and in the search for gamma-ray bursts from gravitational waves.