NuSTAR

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NuSTARExploring the Hard X-ray UniverseFiona
Harrison (CalTech) and the NuSTAR Team
ABSTRACT The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope
Array (NuSTAR), a proposed SMEX mission, will be
the first focusing hard X-ray telescope in earth
orbit, with imaging and spectroscopic
capabilities in the 6-80 keV band. The telescope
will employ an array of grazing-incidence
segmented mirrors with depth-graded multilayer
coatings to achieve 40 arcsec HPD resolution.
This will enable the first true images of
extended hard X-ray sources. High resolution also
translates to high sensitivity for deep hard
X-ray surveys. The telescope mirrors and
detectors will be deployed on opposite ends of an
extendable mast. The NuSTAR mission has three
primary science goals. NuSTAR will make a census
of Galactic and extragalactic black holes, with
deep imaging surveys of the Galactic Center
region and of the NDWFS and GOODS fields
(studying highly absorbed sources near the peak
of the extragalactic hard X-ray background).
NuSTAR will image Ti-44 line emission in young
supernova remnants to study the birth of the
elements and supernova dynamics. Finally, NuSTAR
will make spectral and time-variability studies
of active galactic nuclei, in coordination with
GLAST and other gamma-ray telescopes as well as
ground-based radio and optical telescopes. In
addition to these core programs, NuSTAR will be a
new and powerful tool for the study of galactic
compact objects, gamma-ray bursts, nearby
supernovae, galaxy clusters, and other sources,
opening the hard X-ray band to observations with
unprecedented resolution and sensitivity.