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                        NASA to Launch Black Hole Hunter

   by Suzanne Presto

   The U.S. space agency is set to launch a telescope into space June 13
   to seek out and study black holes - those still-mysterious celestial
   bodies that scientists believe lie at the heart of every massive
   galaxy, including our own Milky Way.  NASA's [1]Nuclear Spectroscopic
   Telescope Array, or NuSTAR  will explore to see what it can find.
   The gravitational pull of black holes is so intense that not even light
   can escape from them. As gas, dust and stars are sucked in, the
   material accelerates and heats up, generating powerful X-ray light
   emissions.
   "Stars, nebulae and black holes emit X-rays of the type that we use in
   medical X-rays, and these cannot be detected from the surface of the
   Earth," explained Paul Hertz, the director of NASA's astrophysics
   division. "But the NuSTAR telescope will focus these X-rays onto its
   digital camera and send the pictures back to Earth for scientific
   analysis."
   Scientists expect to start getting data about a month after NuSTAR's
   launch. The data will be studied by people around the world, including
   NuSTAR's principal investigator, Fiona Harrison.
   "NuSTAR will open a whole new window on the universe, by being the very
   first telescope to focus high-energy X-rays.  As such, it will make
   images that are 10 times crisper and 100 times more sensitive than any
   telescope that is operated in this region of the spectrum," Harrison
   said.
   NASA describes an image showing the glow of hundreds of massive black
   holes in the universe as the best that current telescopes can provide.
   A simulation on the NASA web site shows what the space agency expects
   NuSTAR to see when it surveys the extra-galactic sky.
   About a week after NuSTAR launches, its 10-meter mast will deploy,
   separating the mirrors from the detectors. That provides the distance
   required to focus the X-ray light into sharp images.
   The telescope will be able to find black holes hidden behind screens of
   dust and gas.  It will also be able to tell how quickly a black hole is
   spinning, which will help scientists learn how they form.

   "Like all of our NASA missions, we're going to find unexpected things
   out there that will lead us to questions and answers that we aren't
   even anticipating at this time," stated Hertz.
   NASA scientists say one of NuStar's goals is to take a census of
   collapsed stars and black holes in the universe.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/nasa-to-launch-black-hole-hunter/1204
   889.html

References

   1. http://science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/nasa-to-launch-black-hole-hunter/1204889.html