NuSTAR Bringing the High Energy Universe into Focus

The NuSTAR General Observer (GO) cycle-7 proposal selection has been released. The full list of proposals, targets, and exposure times is available from the NuSTAR GO website at HEASARC. Cycle-7 observations are planned to commence on June 1st, 2021.

Some of the world’s most powerful telescopes simultaneously observed the supermassive black hole in galaxy M87, the first black hole to be directly imaged.

Astronomers are investigating the mystery of the “soft excess” of low-energy X-ray emission often seen from accreting supermassive black holes. This enigmatic component can carry a large fraction of the X-ray flux, but is poorly understood. Multiple theories have been suggested. Simultaneous observations with NuSTAR (at high energy X-rays) and XMM-Newton (at low-energy X-rays) provide a powerful combination to investigate its origin.