New Space Telescope, NuSTAR, takes picture of black hole

NASA's newest space telescope, NuSTAR has taken it's first X-Ray picture of the Cygnus X-1 black hole system:



Cygus X-1 is a black hole with a nearby giant star. The black hole is relentlessly siphoning away material from the star. As the material falls into the black hole, large amounts of energy is produced including X-Rays. NuSTAR imaged this X-Ray radiation.



The NuSTAR telescope itself looks like this:



It's task is to look for high energy sources including black holes.

The launch of NuSTAR was done by attaching it to a Pegasus rocket which was dropped by an airplane which was then rocketed into space.



www.nustar.caltech.edu...
www.nasa.gov...
en.wikipedia.org...

Facinating and the NuSTAR looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

Reminds me a bit of the 2001 spaceship... but still very cool!

Originally posted by digitalf
Facinating and the NuSTAR looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

You mean like the Discovery 1 spacecraft from the classic movie 2001 - A Space Odyssey?



The long mast increases the sensitivity of the telescope:

After launching into orbit on a small rocket, the NuSTAR telescope extends to achieve a 10-meter focal length. The observatory will provide a combination of sensitivity, spatial, and spectral resolution factors of 10 to 100 improved over previous missions that have operated at these X-ray energies.

www.nustar.caltech.edu...

reply to post by Nicolas Flamel

"Black" hole?
That thing looks orange to me. And if you look really close you can see the American flag is clearly flapping in the windless environment.

reply to post by Trublbrwing


-sigh- Really?

It is an image of the X-Rays. There-for false color. You can't see X-Rays with equipment to turn it into a picture. Which you can say, "Bright Orange is high energy. Black is devoid of energy." This is so we as humans can 'see' the energy difference. AKA: The most X-ray emitting area.

Yup, the black hole itself is only 52 km (32 miles ) wide and also 15 times more massive than our sun. It would be impossible to see directly.

As the black whole consumes the neighboring star, it forms an whirlpool like disk around the black whole. Ionized matter emits X-Rays as it streams into oblivion.

Originally posted by Foxe
reply to post by Trublbrwing

 

-sigh- Really?

It is an image of the X-Rays. There-for false color. You can't see X-Rays with equipment to turn it into a picture. Which you can say, "Bright Orange is high energy. Black is devoid of energy." This is so we as humans can 'see' the energy difference. AKA: The most X-ray emitting area.

I thought for sure the part about the flag would be a dead giveaway that my reply was meant to be humorous.

Look at the focal length on that thing! That's huge!!!!!!

reply to post by Trublbrwing


I ask that no rude jokes are made please,

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