NuSTAR Bringing the High Energy Universe into Focus

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.

A serendipitous X-ray flare detected by NASA’s Swift observatory is likely associated with a supermassive black hole at the core of a distant galaxy shredding a star that wandered too close.