First Results from the NuSTAR AGN Physics Program

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR, launched June 2012) is revolutionizing our knowledge of the physics at work in active galactic nuclei (AGN). With its high collecting area, focusing optics and low background from 3-79 keV, NASA's newest X-ray observatory is providing an unprecedented look at the spectral and timing properties of AGN in this energy range, which have been notoriously difficult to access. NuSTAR has observed several AGN to date simultaneously with XMM-Newton, Suzaku and/or Swift for the purposes of understanding their coronal properties (e.g., plasma temperature, optical depth) and measuring the spins of their supermassive black holes. We present the first results from these observing campaigns, highlighting the spectral and timing analysis of the bright, nearby AGN IC 4329A, NGC 4151, NGC 1365 and MCG--6-30-15. These are the highest signal-to-noise datasets ever obtained across the 0.2-79 keV energy band for these three sources, allowing us to cleanly deconvolve the X-ray continuum, absorption and reflection components in each galaxy for the first time via time-averaged and time-resolved spectroscopy.