A Hard X-ray Look at Starburst Galaxies with NuSTAR
Abstract
NuSTAR opens up the possibility to not only detect starburst galaxies above 10 keV for the first time but also characterize their hard X-ray properties. Here we present an overview of a NuSTAR program to survey a sample of normal/starburst galaxies: NGC 253, M82, M83, NGC 3256, NGC 3310 and Arp 299, half of which have been observed so far. The main goals are: 1) characterize the typical starburst spectrum above 10 keV 2) identify the nature of individually-detected X-ray sources (neutron star HMXB vs. black hole candidate) 3) look for short-term (hours to weeks) variability and establish a baseline for long-term variability studies and 4) characterization of the unresolved contribution to the NuSTAR flux (unresolved X-ray binaries and inverse-Compton scattering off of cosmic rays).
- Publication:
-
X-ray View of Galaxy Ecosystems
- Pub Date:
- August 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014xvge.confE..33P