NuSTAR Bringing the High Energy Universe into Focus

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Calla Cofield
Media Relations Specialist
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
(818) 393-1821

showing 25 of 127 records on page 3 of 6

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Young Magnetar Likely the Slowest Pulsar Ever Detected

Feature Story • September 8, 2016

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray observatories, astronomers have found evidence for what is likely one of the most extreme pulsars, or rotating neutron stars, ever detected. The source exhibits properties of a highly magnetized neutron star, or magnetar, yet its deduced spin period is thousands of times longer than any pulsar ever observed.

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NuSTAR Principal Investigator Honored for Research

Feature Story • August 8, 2016

Fiona Harrison, principal investigator of NASA's NuSTAR mission, has been selected to receive the 2016 Massey Award, given by the Committee on Space Research. The Massey Award honors "outstanding contributions to the development of space research in which a leadership role is of particular importance" and honors the memory of Sir Harrie Massey.

Chorus of Black Holes Sings in X-Rays

Feature Story • July 28, 2016

Supermassive black holes in the universe are like a raucous choir singing in the language of X-rays. When black holes pull in surrounding matter, they let out powerful X-ray bursts. This song of X-rays, coming from a chorus of millions of black holes, fills the entire sky -- a phenomenon astronomers call the cosmic X-ray background.

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Black Hole Makes Material Wobble Around It

Feature Story • July 12, 2016

The European Space Agency's orbiting X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has proved the existence of a "gravitational vortex" around a black hole. The discovery, aided by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission, solves a mystery that has eluded astronomers for more than 30 years, and will allow them to map the behavior of matter very close to black holes. It could also open the door to future investigations of Albert Einstein's general relativity.

Where a Neutron Star’s Accretion Disk Ends

Feature Story • March 16, 2016

Using observations made by X-ray space observatories NuSTAR and Swift/XRT, a team of scientists led by Ashley King (Einstein Fellow at Stanford University) has managed to measure the location of the inner edge of the disk in Aquila X-1, a neutron-star X-ray binary located 17,000 light-years away.

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2016 Outstanding Faculty Award Recipient

Feature Story • January 22, 2016

Dr. Lynn R. Cominsky, Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, joined the faculty at Sonoma State University in 1986 and became chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department in 2004. She also founded Sonoma State’s Education and Public Outreach group in 1999. Previously, she worked with the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and NASA’s Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite Project. Dr. Cominsky earned her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her BA from Brandeis University.

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Fiona Harrison Awarded High-Energy Astrophysics Prize

Feature Story • January 16, 2016

The 2015 Rossi Prize has been awarded to Fiona Harrison, the Benjamin M. Rosen Professor of Physics at Caltech, for her "groundbreaking work on supernova remnants, neutron stars, and black holes enabled by NuSTAR." The award is the top prize in high-energy astrophysics.

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Andromeda Galaxy Scanned with High-Energy X-ray Vision

Feature Story • January 5, 2016

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has captured the best high-energy X-ray view yet of a portion of our nearest large, neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. The space mission has observed 40 "X-ray binaries" -- intense sources of X-rays comprised of a black hole or neutron star that feeds off a stellar companion.

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NuSTAR Finds Cosmic Clumpy Doughnut Around Black Hole

Feature Story • December 17, 2015

The most massive black holes in the universe are often encircled by thick, doughnut-shaped disks of gas and dust. This deep-space doughnut material ultimately feeds and nourishes the growing black holes tucked inside.

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Black Hole Has Major Flare

Feature Story • October 26, 2015

The baffling and strange behaviors of black holes have become somewhat less mysterious recently, with new observations from NASA's Explorer missions Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. The two space telescopes caught a supermassive black hole in the midst of a giant eruption of X-ray light, helping astronomers address an ongoing puzzle: How do supermassive black holes flare?

The Universe in X-ray Light

Blog • August 3, 2015

When I stop and think about it, it never ceases to amaze me that radio waves, infrared light, which we experience as heat, x-rays and gamma-rays are all the same fundamental physical phenomenon – light, or electromagnetic radiation. The thing that distinguishes these different kinds of light is the wavelength.

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Searing Sun Seen in X-rays

Feature Story • July 8, 2015

X-rays light up the surface of our sun in a bouquet of colors in this new image containing data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.

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NuSTAR Stares Deep into Hidden Lairs of Black Holes

Feature Story • July 6, 2015

Some of the "biggest and baddest" black holes around are buried under thick blankets of gas and dust. These monsters in the middle of galaxies are actively devouring material, but their hidden nature makes observing them a challenge. NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) recently caught a glimpse of five of these secluded beasts.

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Star Explosion is Lopsided, Finds NASA's NuSTAR

News Release • May 7, 2015

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has found evidence that a massive star exploded in a lopsided fashion, sending ejected material flying in one direction and the core of the star in the other.

Strong Evidence For Coronal Heating Theory Presented at 2015 TESS Meeting

News Release • April 30, 2015

The sun's surface is blisteringly hot at 10,340 degrees Fahrenheit -- but its atmosphere is another 300 times hotter. This has led to an enduring mystery for those who study the sun: What heats the atmosphere to such extreme temperatures? Normally when you move away from a hot source the environment gets cooler, but some mechanism is clearly at work in the solar atmosphere, the corona, to bring the temperatures up so high.

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NASA's NuSTAR Captures Possible 'Screams' from Zombie Stars

News Release • April 29, 2015

Peering into the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array has spotted a mysterious glow of high-energy X-rays that, according to scientists, could be the "howls" of dead stars as they feed on stellar companions.

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NASA, ESA Telescopes Give Shape to Furious Black Hole Winds

News Release • February 19, 2015

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array and ESA’s XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions -- a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now.

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NuSTAR Principal Investigator Receives High-Energy Astrophysics Prize

Feature Story • January 16, 2015

The 2015 Rossi Prize has been awarded to Fiona Harrison, a professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, for her "groundbreaking work on supernova remnants, neutron stars and black holes enabled by NuSTAR".

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Will the Real Monster Black Hole Please Stand Up?

News Release • January 8, 2015

A new high-energy X-ray image from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has pinpointed the true monster of a galactic mashup. The image shows two colliding galaxies, collectively called Arp 299, located 134 million light-years away. Each of the galaxies has a supermassive black hole at its heart.

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Sun Sizzles in High-Energy X-Rays

Feature Story • December 22, 2014

For the first time, a mission designed to set its eyes on black holes and other objects far from our solar system has turned its gaze back closer to home, capturing images of our sun. NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array has taken its first picture of the sun, producing the most sensitive solar portrait ever taken in high-energy X-rays.

NASA X-ray Telescopes Find Black Hole May Be a Neutrino Factory

News Release • November 13, 2014

The giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be producing mysterious particles called neutrinos. If confirmed, this would be the first time that scientists have traced neutrinos back to a black hole. The evidence for this came from three NASA satellites that observe in X-ray light: the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Swift gamma-ray mission, and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array.

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NuSTAR Featured in a Documentary on the Science of Interstellar

Announcement • October 30, 2014

NuSTAR featured in Discovery Channel documentary called 'The Science of Interstellar'. Matthew McConaughey narrates this behind-the-scenes look at the epic voyage to deep space depicted in the movie Interstellar. Director Christopher Nolan worked with top physicists to create a realistic trip to distant solar systems.

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NASA's NuSTAR Telescope Discovers Shockingly Bright Dead Star

News Release • October 8, 2014

Astronomers have found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the brightest pulsar - a dense stellar remnant left over from a supernova explosion - ever recorded. The discovery was made with NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.

NASA Holds Teleconference on NuSTAR Discovery

Announcement • October 6, 2014

NASA will host a news teleconference at 10 a.m. PDT (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.

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Pulse of a Dead Star Powers Intense Gamma Rays

Feature Story • September 16, 2014

When the most massive stars explode as supernovas, they don't fade into the night, but sometimes glow ferociously with high-energy gamma rays. What powers these energetic stellar remains?

showing 25 of 127 records on page 3 of 6

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