Science Highlights from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, launched in June 2012, and is the first telescope in orbit to focus high-energy X-rays above 10 keV. High-energy X-rays provide a unique probe of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, from flares on the surface of the Sun, to the explosions of stars, to the extreme environments around neutron stars and black holes. NuSTAR has discovered neutron stars accreting at prodigious rates, and has provided robust measurements of how fast black holes are spinning. Compared to the previous generation of non-focusing observatories working in this energy band, NuSTAR's change in technology provides 10x sharper images and 100x greater sensitivity. This talk will present some of the highlights from the NuSTAR mission and describe how they are changing our picture of the extreme universe.