49. NuSTAR

♤ Why in News: Using NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), 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 Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array- NASA’s mission

♤ It is an Explorer mission that will allow astronomers to study the universe in high energy X-rays. Launched in June of 2012, NuSTAR is the first focusing hard X-ray telescope to orbit Earth. It is expected to greatly exceed the performance of the largest ground-based observatories that have observed this region of the electromagnetic spectrum. NuSTAR complements astrophysics missions that explore the cosmos in other regions of the spectrum.

♤ X-ray telescopes such as Chandra and XMM-Newton have observed the X-ray universe at low X-ray energy levels. By focusing higher energy X-rays, NuSTAR will start to answer several fundamental questions about the Universe including:

♤ How are black holes distributed through the cosmos?

♤ How were heavy elements forged in the explosions of massive stars?

♤ What powers the most extreme active galaxies?

♤ NuSTAR's primary science objectives include:

♤ Conducting a census for black holes on all scales using wide-field surveys of extragalactic fields and the Galactic center.

♤ Mapping radioactive material in young supernova remnants; Studying the birth of the elements and to understand how stars explode.

♤ Observing relativistic jets found in the most extreme active galaxies and to understand what powers giant cosmic accelerators.

♤ NuSTAR will also study the origin of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars while responding to targets of opportunity including supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. NuSTAR will perform follow-up observations to discoveries made by Chandra and Spitzer, and will team with Fermi, making simultaneous observations which will greatly enhancing Fermi's science return.