NuSTAR
NuSTAR is a telescope launched into space by NASA in 2012. It is the eleventh satellite in the "Small Explorer" program. Telescopes in space can see much better than on Earth, because the telescopes on Earth need to look through the atmosphere.
NuSTAR measures high-energy X-rays, which have a much higher frequency than visible light. It uses special optical devices to do this, so it works differently from a normal telescope. This type of telescope is called a Wolter telescope.[1]
NuSTAR is searching for black holes. It is also looking at supernovae to help understand how the chemical elements are created.[1] One of the first discoveries made by NuSTAR, along with another space telescope called XMM-Newton, was to measure the spin rate of a supermassive black hole for the first time.[2]
Further reading
- "Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR" (PDF). June 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
- NuSTAR website at NASA. Archived 2013-09-10 at the Wayback Machine
NuSTAR Media
One of NuSTAR's two detectors
NuSTAR's mast deployed on Earth; the inset is looking down the structure
This representation of a black hole shows both sides of the accretion disk: in this case, gas above and below the black event horizon is from behind the black hole, while gas flowing in front is from the observers side.
A neutron star surrounded by an accretion disk. Disk material that falls on to the surface of the star will release x-rays as radiation, contributing to the observed luminosity. When this luminosity is greater than what the Eddington limit predicts from the star mass, this object is known as a Ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX).
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 About NuSTAR: The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
- ↑ Whitney Clavin, NASA (27 February 2013). "NASA's NuSTAR Helps Solve Riddle of Black Hole Spin". Press release. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/news/nustar20130227.html. Retrieved 3 March 2013.