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We’ve moved! For the latest updates on NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission, please follow @NASAUniverse and @NASASolarSystem. You can also keep track of us at www.nustar.caltech.edu in the future or catch up with the complete stories of these news releases from earlier this year
Hidden in Plain Sight: Monster Black Holes Found in Nearby Galaxies
News Release • July 29, 2020
NASA’s NuSTAR satellite has observed the faintest growing supermassive black holes in our cosmic backyard, and found that some of them are actually luminous “monsters” hiding behind thick clouds of dust and gas.
Runaway Star Might Explain Black Hole’s Disappearing Act
News Release • July 16, 2020
At the center of a far-off galaxy, a black hole is slowly consuming a disk of gas that swirls around it like water circling a drain. As a steady trickle of gas is pulled into the gaping maw, ultrahot particles gather close to the black hole, above and below the disk, generating a brilliant X-ray glow that can be seen 300 million light-years away on Earth. These collections of ultrahot gas, called black hole coronas, have been known to exhibit noticeable changes in their luminosity, brightening or dimming by up to 100 times as a black hole feeds.
