NuSTAR Extragalactic Science Plan
Abstract
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), scheduled for launch in February 2012, will open the high energy extragalactic sky in the 5 - 80 keV band to sensitive study for the first time. The baseline 2-year mission includes a mixture of field surveys and targeted observations of known sources. A deep, several-month campaign observing the COSMOS and GOODS fields will significantly enhance our understanding of the sources contributing to the X-ray background at its 30 keV peak. In particular, models predict a population of heavily-obscured AGN, undetected in the soft X-rays, that will be seen in the hard X-ray observations of NuSTAR. Targeted observations include high energy studies of galaxy clusters to constrain non-thermal X-ray emission, coordinated blazar monitoring campaigns, observations of local starburst galaxies, and detailed studies of well-known AGN in order to study the physics of their high energy emission.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #217
- Pub Date:
- January 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AAS...21725413M