NuSTAR Observations of the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant

Young supernova remnants represent a unique laboratory for the study of supernova explosion dynamics and particle acceleration in the local universe. In the hard X-ray band probed by NuSTAR (3-79 keV), the continuum emission is thought to be dominated by synchrotron radiation from ~TeV electrons, while line emission at 68 and 78 keV is produced by the decay of radioactive 44Ti synthesized in the supernova explosion. With NuSTAR we can spatially resolve these hard X-ray components for the first time. Here we report on the results from deep NuSTAR observations (>1 Ms) of the young 340 year old) supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.