NASA reopens black hole search

Stephen Withers
Monday, 24 September 2007 14:00

Science - Space

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) project that will provide a new way of looking at the universe has been restarted by NASA.

Whereas the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray telescopes have provided a way of 'seeing' low-energy X-rays, NuSTAR will detect X-rays up to eight times higher. This will give scientists new information about the distribution of black holes, the way stars explode, and other questions about the nature of the universe.

"We are very excited to be able restart the NuSTAR mission, which we expect to be launched in 2011," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"NuSTAR has more than 500 times the sensitivity of previous instruments that detect black holes. It's a great opportunity for us to explore an important astronomical frontier."

NuSTAR should be launched in 2011, according to NASA officials, and will fill the gap between the 2009 launch of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the 2013 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.

The NuSTAR project is a partnership involving Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Columbia University, the Danish National Space Center, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, U.C. Santa Cruz, Sonoma State University, General Dynamics Spectrum Astro, and ABLE Engineering. It is led by Fiona Harrison of Caltech.