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Media telecon - NuSTAR
October 8, 2014

NASA’s NuSTAR Telescope Discovers Shockingly Bright Dead Star 

Astronomers have found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the brightest pulsar – a dense stellar remnant left over from a supernova explosion – ever recorded. The discovery was made with NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Audio and supporting visuals will be streamed live at: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL2

 

 

Participants:

-- Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics division, NASA Headquarters, Washington

-- Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

-- Matteo Bachetti, astronomer, University of Toulouse, France

-- Jeanette Gladstone, astronomer, University of Alberta, Canada

 

 

Hertz - 1

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Harrison - 1

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Harrison - 2

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Harrison - 3

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Bachetti - 1

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Bachetti - 2

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Gladstone - 1

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Messier 82 (M82) is seen here in two different lights
The galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is seen here in two different lights. A visible-light view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is at left, and an X-ray view from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is at right.
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High-energy X-rays streaming from a rare and mighty pulsar
High-energy X-rays streaming from a rare and mighty pulsar (magenta), the brightest found to date, can be seen in this new image combining multi-wavelength data from three telescopes.
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chart illustrates the relative masses of super-dense cosmic objects
This chart illustrates the relative masses of super-dense cosmic objects, ranging from white dwarfs to the supermassive black holes encased in the cores of most galaxies.
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This artist's illustration shows a black hole
This artist's illustration shows a black hole (center of disk) with matter from a massive companion star falling onto it. Objects like this are thought to make up the "ultraluminous X-ray source," or ULX, population, but recently one ULX was found to be a dead star called a pulsar, not a black hole.
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The brightest pulsar detected to date is shown in this animation that flips back and forth between images
The brightest pulsar detected to date is shown in this animation that flips back and forth between images captured by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.
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Messier 82 (M82)
This image shows the core of galaxy Messier 82 (M82), where two ultraluminous X-ray sources, or ULXs, reside (X-1 and X-2). ULXs are regions that shine intensely with X-rays.
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This animation shows a neutron star -- the core of a star that exploded in a massive supernova. This particular neutron star is known as a pulsar because it sends out rotating beams of X-rays that sweep past Earth like lighthouse beacons.
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Page Last Updated: October 8th, 2014
Page Editor: Tony Greicius