NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) covers 10 years. Launched on June 13, 2012, this space shuttle detects intense X ray light and explores some of the most powerful objects and processes in the universe, ranging from black holes devouring hot gas. remnants of exploding stars. Here are some of the ways NuSTAR has opened our eyes to the X-ray space over the past decade.
See X-ray Near Home
Different colors of visible light have different waves and different energies; similarly, there is a spectrum of X-ray light, or light waves that are stronger than those seen by human eyes. NuSTAR receives X-rays at the highest end of the spectrum. There are not many objects in our solar system that emit X-rays that NuSTAR cannot detect, but the Sun does: Its powerful X-rays come from microflares, or tiny particles from light and light on them. NuSTAR observations contribute to the understanding of the formation of large flares, which can cause damage to the atmosphere and satellites. These studies can also help scientists explain why the Sun’s outer surface, the corona, is hotter than its surface. NuSTAR also saw high-resolution X-rays from Jupiter, solving the mystery of decades of why they had never been seen before.
Lighting Dark Holes
Dark holes do not emit light, but some of the largest ones we know are surrounded by hot gas discs that light up with many different light waves. NuSTAR could show scientists what is happening to objects near the black hole, revealing how black holes produce bright flares and hot gas jets that stretch thousands of light years into space. The work measured the variability in temperature in the air of black holes that influence the formation of stars throughout the galaxy. Recently, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) took the very first black photographs of the dark holes, and NuSTAR provided support. Along with other NASA telescopes, NuSTAR monitored black holes for flashes and light changes that could affect EHT’s ability to capture images.
One of the great achievements of NuSTAR in this field was the development of a first-of-its-kind black hole, which we did in partnership with the ESA (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton mission. Spin is the degree to which the gravitational force of a black hole turns the environment, and measurement helped to confirm Albert Einstein’s theoretical aspects of the common relationship.
Finding Hidden Black Holes
NuSTAR has identified a number of black holes hidden behind dense clouds of gas and dust. Visual light often cannot penetrate those clouds, but the powerful X-ray light seen by NuSTAR can. This gives scientists a better estimate of the total number of black holes in the universe. In recent years scientists have been using NuSTAR data to determine how these giants are surrounded by so many dense clouds, how that process affects their growth, and how obscurity is related to the effect of black holes in the surrounding galaxy.
Revealing the Power of ‘Immortal’ Stars
NuSTAR is a type of zombie hunter: Clever at finding dead carcasses. Known as neutron stars, these are nuggets of dense material left over after a large star runs out of gas and collapses. Although neutron stars are usually the size of a large city, they are so dense that one teaspoon can weigh one billion tons on Earth. Their density, combined with their strong magnetic field, makes these objects extremely powerful: One neutron star in the galaxy M82 shines with a power of ten million Suns.
Without NuSTAR, scientists could not find out how powerful neutron stars could be. When an object was discovered on the M82, researchers thought that only a black hole could produce such a large amount of energy in such a small space. NuSTAR was able to verify the true identity of the object by receiving a respite from the rotation of the star – and has since shown that many of these ultraluminous X-ray sources, previously thought to be black holes, are actually neutron stars. Knowing how much energy it can generate has helped scientists to better understand their physical features, unlike anything found in our solar system.
Solving the Mysteries of Supernova
During their lifetime, stars are usually round, but NuSTAR observations have shown that when they explode like supernovae, they form asymmetrical mud. The space telescope solved a great mystery in the study of the supernovae by making a map of the radioactive material left by the explosion of two stars, tracking the debris and in both cases revealed a significant deviation of the circular shape. Thanks to NuSTAR’s X-ray view, astronomers now have clues as to what is happening in the area that it is impossible to directly investigate. NuSTAR observations suggest that the inner regions of the star are extremely turbulent during the explosion.
NuSTAR was launched on June 13, 2012. The chief investigator of the equipment is Fiona Harrison, chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at Caltech in Pasadena, California. For the purpose of testing Small Explorer hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the Southern California Institute of NASA’s Mechanical Sciences unit, Washington was developed in partnership with the Danish Technical University (DTU) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Telescope optics was developed by Columbia University, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and DTU. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. Dulles, Virginia. The NuSTAR mission is located at the University of California, Berkeley, and the official database is NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center. ASI provides a hardware base and a screen data archive.
For more read: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-nustar-mission-celebrates-10-years-studying-the-x-ray-universe
