Home > Science/Astronomy > NASA’s NuSTAR Spots Flare from Milky Way’s Black Hole

NASA’s NuSTAR Spots Flare from Milky Way’s Black Hole

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) — NASA’s newest set of X-ray eyes in the sky, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), has caught its first look at the giant black hole parked at the center of our galaxy. The observations show the typically mild-mannered black hole during the middle of a flare-up.

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has captured these first, focused views of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy in high-energy X-ray light. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
 

“We got lucky to have captured an outburst from the black hole during our observing campaign,” said Fiona Harrison, the mission’s principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. “These data will help us better understand the gentle giant at the heart of our galaxy and why it sometimes flares up for a few hours and then returns to slumber.”

The new images can be seen by visiting: http://www.nasa.gov/nustar .

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121023145224.htm

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