Black hole hunting X-ray telescope to launch next month
Play
Washington - NASA's newest state-of-the-art telescope is ready to begin studying black holes, the US space agency said Wednesday.
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is due to launch into space atop a Pegasus XL rocket on June 13 from an island in the Pacific Ocean, NASA said.
Using nested mirrors, NuSTAR will measure high-energy X-rays to give the deepest, sharpest images yet of black holes, said Fiona Harrison, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology who is the mission's lead investigator.
The telescope will be the first to create images of the highest-energy X-rays and is more than 100-times as sensitive and has 10 times the resolution as similar telescopes that measure X-rays at lower frequencies.
NuStar aims to provide insight into the formation and physics of black holes, will study how exploding stars create elements and examine the atmosphere of the sun.//DPA
