As China's first X-ray astronomical satellite, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), which was dubbed as Insight-HXMT after the launch on June 15, 2017, is a wide-band (1-250 keV) slat-collimator-based X-ray astronomy satellite with the

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The milestone of GW 170817-GRB 170817A-AT 2017gfo 1 has shown that gravitational wave (GW) is produced during the merger of neutron star-neutron star/black hole and that in electromagnetic (EM) wave a gamma-ray burst (GRB) and a kilonovae (KN) are generated in sequence after the merger. Observationally, however, EM property during a merger is still unclear. Here we report a peculiar precursor in a KN-associated long GRB 211211A. The duration of the precursor is ∼ 0.2 s, and the waiting time between the precursor and the main emission (ME) of the burst is ∼ 1 s, which is about the same as the time interval between GW 170817 and GRB 170817A. Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPO) with frequency ∼22 Hz (at > 5σ significance) are found throughout the precursor, the first detection of periodic signals from any bona fide GRBs. This indicates most likely that a magnetar participated in the merger, and the precursor might be produced due to a catastrophic flare accompanying with torsional or crustal oscillations of the magnetar. The strong seed magnetic field of ∼ 10 14−15 G at the surface of the magnetar may also account for the prolonged duration of GRB 211211A. However, it is a challenge to reconcile the rather short lifetime of a magnetar

The Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) is a broad band X-ray and gamma-ray (1-3000 keV) astronomy satellite. The High Energy X-ray telescope (HE) is one of its three main telescopes. The main detector plane of HE is composed of 18 NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na) phoswich detectors, where NaI(Tl) serves as primary detector to measure ~ 20-250 keV photons incident from the field of view (FOV) defined by the collimators, and CsI(Na) is used as an active shield detector to NaI(Tl) by pulse shape discrimination. CsI(Na) is also used as an omnidirectional gamma-ray monitor. The HE collimators have a diverse FOV: 1.1°x 5.7° (15 units), 5.7°x 5.7° (2 units) and blocked (1 unit), thus the combined FOV of HE is about 5.7°x 5.7°. Each HE detector has a diameter of 190 mm, resulting in the total geometrical area of about 5100 cm 2 . The energy resolution is ~15% at 60 keV. The timing accuracy is better than 10 μs and dead-time for each detector is less than 10 μs. HE is devoted to observe the spectra and temporal variability of X-ray sources in the 20-250 keV band either by pointing observations for known sources or scanning observations to unveil new sources, and to monitor the gamma-ray sky in 0.2-3 MeV. This paper presents the design and performance of the HE instruments. Results of the on-ground calibration experiments are also reported.