The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
Abstract
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array is a Small Explorer (SMEX) mission scheduled for launch in August 2011. NuSTAR will be the first focusing high energy satellite sensitive in the hard X-ray band, and will probe the X-ray sky approximately two orders of magnitude more sensitively than currently achievable. NuSTAR will answer fundamental questions about the Universe: How are black holes distributed through the cosmos, and what is their contribution to the Cosmic X-ray Background? How were the heavy elements forged in the explosions of massive stars? What powers the relativistic jets in the most extreme active galaxies? This presentation will discuss the current status of NuSTAR and the baseline, 2-year science program.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #215
- Pub Date:
- January 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AAS...21548114H