Astrophysics Seminar

4:10 pm Wednesday November 10, 2021

Speaker: Daniel Wik , University of Utah

Title: NuSTAR's Extragalactic X-ray Universe

Abstract:
The universe, and the objects within it, are shaped by gravity and violence, both sudden and prolonged. These energetic events and environments typically emit X-rays, from the colliding winds of massive stars, to supernova explosions and their neutron star and black hole remnants, to supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies, to galaxy clusters--the most massive bound objects in the universe--to the nature of dark matter and dark energy.  They all produce both thermal and non-thermal X-rays through their interaction with intervening gas, offering clues about the processes affecting the formation and evolution of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the universe as a whole.  I will introduce the NuSTAR mission--the first focusing high energy X-ray observatory--including details of its construction and design and how we use it to investigate this broad range of topics.

Presented virtually - contact Joe Shields for details