NuSTAR Bringing the High Energy Universe into Focus

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Fast Radio Burst Magnetar

Artwork • September 17, 2024

In an ejection that would have caused its rotation to slow, a magnetar is depicted losing material into space in this artist’s concept. The magnetar’s strong, twisted magnetic field lines (shown in green) can influence the flow of electrically charged material from the object, which is a type of neutron star.

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X-ray Superflares in Young Binary System DQ Tau

Artwork • September 13, 2024

This illustration depicts X-ray superflares in the DQ Tau binary system. In the picture, brilliant coronal loops of hot plasma emerge from each young star, following their strong magnetic fields. These loops are thought to extend up to 10 times the radii of their host stars, vastly larger than anything seen around our own Sun.

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Gamma-Ray Burst Jet Illustration

Artwork • June 8, 2023

A jet of particles pierces a star as it collapses into a black hole during a typical gamma-ray burst, as depicted in this artist’s concept. The jet created by gamma-ray burst 221009A had some unique features

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Ultra-luminous X-ray Source with Magnetic Fields

Artwork • April 6, 2023

In this illustration of an ultra-luminous X-ray source, two rivers of hot gas are pulled onto the surface of a neutron star. Strong magnetic fields, shown in green, may change the interaction of matter and light near neutron stars’ surface, increasing how bright they can become.

Ultra-luminous X-ray Source

Artwork • April 6, 2023

In this illustration of an ultra-luminous X-ray source, two rivers of hot gas are pulled onto the surface of a neutron star. Strong magnetic fields, may change the interaction of matter and light near neutron stars’ surface, increasing how bright they can become.

A Black Hole Destroys a Star

Artwork • December 20, 2022

A disk of hot gas swirls around a black hole in this illustration. The stream of gas stretching to the right is what remains of a star that was pulled apart by the black hole. A cloud of hot plasma (gas atoms with their electrons stripped away) above the black hole is known as a corona.

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NuSTAR Celebrates 10 Years of Operations

Artwork • June 9, 2022

After a decade of operation, NuSTAR continues to open new horizons, discover fascinating objects, and expand our knowledge of the Universe.

NuSTAR conference, June 2022

Artwork • June 7, 2022

Ten Years of High-Energy Universe in Focus - NuSTAR 2022 - Cagliari, Italy - June 20-22, 2022

Highly Magnetic Neutron Star

Artwork • June 17, 2020

This illustration shows magnetic field lines protruding from a highly magnetic neutron star, or a dense nugget left over after a star goes supernova and explodes. Known as magnetars, these objects generate bright bursts of light that might be powered by their strong magnetic fields.

X-ray Emitting Binaries

Artwork • May 22, 2020

Artists concept of a neutron star (the bright white star) surrounded by an accretion disk of material that it has stripped of its low-mass companion star (top left). This material shines in X-rays as it falls onto the neutron star during "outbursts" of extremely bright X-ray activity.

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Black Hole With Jet

Artwork • October 30, 2017

This artist's concept shows a black hole with an accretion disk -- a flat structure of material orbiting the black hole - and a jet of hot gas, called plasma.

Growing Supermassive Black Holes

Artwork • May 9, 2017

This illustration compares growing supermassive black holes in two different kinds of galaxies.

The Rapid Burster

Artwork • January 31, 2017

These four images show an artist's impression of gas accreting onto the neutron star in the binary system MXB 1730-335, also known as the "Rapid Burster."

Black Hole with 'Wobbling' Disk

Artwork • July 12, 2016

This artist's impression depicts the accretion disc surrounding a black hole, in which the inner region of the disc precesses. "Precession" means that the orbit of material surrounding the black hole changes orientation around the central object.

Hidden Lair Illustration

Artwork • December 17, 2015

Artist illustration of a supermassive black hole. This active black hole is one of the most obscured known, meaning that it is surrounded by extremely thick clouds of gas and dust.

The Anatomy of a Black Hole Flare

Artwork • October 27, 2015

This diagram shows how a shifting feature, called a corona, can create a flare of X-rays around a black hole. The corona (feature represented in purplish colors) gathers inward (left), becoming brighter, before shooting away from the black hole (middle and right). Astronomers don't know why the coronas shift, but they have learned that this process leads to a brightening of X-ray light that can be observed by telescopes.

Shifting Coronas Around Black Holes

Artwork • October 27, 2015

A supermassive black hole is depicted in this artist's concept, surrounded by a swirling disk of material falling into it. The purplish ball of light above the black hole, a feature called the corona, contains highly energetic particles that generate X-ray light. If you could really view the corona, it would be nearly invisible since we can't see its X-ray light.

How Black Hole Winds Blow

Artwork • February 19, 2015

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist's conception.

The Creation of Titanium in Stars

Artwork • February 19, 2014

This diagram illustrates why NuSTAR can see radioactivity in the remains of exploded stars for the first time. The observatory detects high-energy X-ray photons that are released by a radioactive substance called titanium-44.

How to Measure the Spin of a Black Hole

Artwork • February 27, 2013

This chart illustrates the basic model for determining the spin rates of black holes. The three artist's concepts represent the different types of spin: retrograde rotation, where the disk of matter falling onto the hole, called an accretion disk, moves in the opposite direction of the black hole; no spin; and prograde rotation, where the disk spins in the same direction as the black hole.

NuSTAR's Improved View

Artwork • February 27, 2013

This image taken by the ultraviolet-light monitoring camera on the European Space Agency's (ESA's) XMM-Newton telescope shows the beautiful spiral arms of the galaxy NGC1365. The large regions observed by previous satellites contain so much of this background emission that the radiation from the central black hole is mixed and diluted into it. NuSTAR, NASA's newest X-ray observatory, is able to isolate the emission from the black hole, allowing a far more precise analysis of its properties.

Two Models of Black Hole Spin

Artwork • February 27, 2013

Scientists measure the spin rates of supermassive black holes by spreading the X-ray light into different colors. The light comes from accretion disks that swirl around black holes, as shown in both of the artist's concepts.

Black Holes: Monsters in Space

Artwork • February 21, 2013

This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies. In this illustration, the supermassive black hole at the center is surrounded by matter flowing onto the black hole in what is termed an accretion disk. This disk forms as the dust and gas in the galaxy falls onto the hole, attracted by its gravity.

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Artist's Concept of NuSTAR

Artwork • May 1, 2012

Artist's concept of NuSTAR on orbit. NuSTAR has a 10-m (30') mast that deployed after launch to separate the optics modules from the detectors in the focal plane.

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Artist's Concept of NuSTAR

Artwork • May 1, 2012

Artist's concept of NuSTAR in orbit. NuSTAR has a 10-m (30') mast that was deployed after launch to separate the optics modules from the detectors in the focal plane.

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The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array science operations center is located on the campus of the California Institute of Technology