The Universe is a tough neighborhood

Stars explode, sending million-degree gas screaming away at 10 million kilometers per hour. Black holes tear apart matter, voraciously devouring gas, dust, stars, anything within their reach. Galaxy cores, each possessing monstrous black holes, not only gobble down material, but also send out powerful jets of matter and energy that can be seen clear across the observable Universe.

This is the high-energy Universe in which we live. Our eyes only see the relatively low-energy events, the ones that produce visible light. To get a look at the real action we need eyes sensitive to X-rays. That is the purpose of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array ( NuSTAR ) mission: to bring the high-energy Universe into focus.