“NuSTAR” successfully launched by NASA

15th June 2012

NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array)

NASA successfully launched NuSTAR

Launched from: Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands

Launched after a 2-stage aircraft-to-rocket takeoff

NuSTAR:-

• A space-based X-ray telescope that will use a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays from astrophysical sources, especially for nuclear spectroscopy
• The first space-based direct-imaging X-ray telescope at energies beyond those of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton

Primary Objective:

• Conducting a deep survey for black holes a billion times more massive than our sun,
• Understanding how particles are accelerated to within a fraction of a percent of the speed of light in active galaxies,
• Understanding how the elements are created in the explosions of massive stars by imaging the remains, which are called supernova remnants