Five years ago, on June 13, 2012, Caltech's Fiona Harrison, principal investigator of NASA's NuSTAR mission, watched with her team as their black-hole-spying spacecraft was launched into space aboard a rocket strapped to the belly of an aircraft. The launch occurred over the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Many members of the team anxiously followed the launch from the mission's operations center at the University of California, Berkeley, anxious to see what NuSTAR would find. Read more
NASA will host a news teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 8, to announce new findings from its Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission. The results describe an unusual source of X-rays that will leave theorists scratching their heads, but also will help astronomers learn more about how black holes and galaxies are formed. Read more
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is giving the wider astronomical community a first look at its unique X-ray images of the cosmos. The first batch of data from the black-hole hunting telescope is publicly available today, Aug. 29, via NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Centre, or HEASARC. Read more
Giant Black Hole Being Observed by NASA Behaves a Lot like A Hungry Baby
NASA recently hit the bullseye while using their Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and was able to focus in on this gentle giant that sits at the center of our galaxy like a big wide opened mouth ready to devour anything that is unlucky to fly into its wide opened jaws (so to speak) and was able to focus in and observe the black hole right in the middle of one of its flare ups. Read more
Sept. 21, 2012, will mark 100 days since NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, launched into space from the L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft. Since completing its 30-day checkout, the telescope has been busy making its first observations of black holes, super-dense dead stars and the glowing remains of exploded stars. Read more
Title: Polarisation studies with NuSTAR Authors: Simone Lotti, Lorenzo Natalucci, Paolo Giommi, B. Grefenstette, Fiona A. Harrison, Kristin K. Madsen, Matteo Perri, Simonetta Puccetti, Andreas Zoglauer
The capability of NuSTAR to detect polarisation in the Compton scattering regime (>50 keV) has been investigated. The NuSTAR mission, flown on June 2012 a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), provides a unique possibility to confirm the findings of INTEGRAL on the polarisation of cosmic sources in the hard X-rays. Each of the two focal plane detectors are high resolution pixellated CZT arrays, sensitive in the energy range ~ 3 - 80 keV. These units have intrinsic polarisation capabilities when the proper information on the double events is transmitted on ground. In this case it will be possible to detect polarisation from bright sources on timescales of the order of 10^5s
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has snapped its first test images of the sizzling high-energy X-ray universe. The observatory, launched June 13, is the first space telescope with the ability to focus high-energy X-rays, the same kind used by doctors and dentists, into crisp images. Soon, the mission will begin its exploration of hidden black holes; fiery cinder balls left over from star explosions; and other sites of extreme physics in our cosmos. Read more
NuSTAR Mission Status Report: Observatory Unfurls its Unique Mast
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has successfully deployed its lengthy mast, giving it the ability to see the highest energy X-rays in our universe. The mission is one step closer to beginning its hunt for black holes hiding in our Milky Way and other galaxies. Read more