NuSTAR X-Ray Telescope image: Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A

The supernova Cassiopeia A, as seen by the NuSTAR X-ray telescope

Image: DSS/JPL-Caltech/NASA

A space telescope has peered through dense dust and gas to produce the first images of the high-energy cosmos. These reveal two blazing black holes and a supernova remnant (see pictures, right).

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, was launched into Earth orbit on 13 June. It can detect X-ray radiation at energies between 6 and 79 kilo electronvolts, well above the range of NASA's other orbiting telescopes, such as Chandra.

Such high-energy radiation can penetrate gas and dust, so NuSTAR sees through the galactic debris that blinds other telescopes.

On 7 January, Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, released the telescope's first images at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Long Beach, California.

One image (see picture, right) is of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, which is about 11,000 light years from us. It shows never-seen-before high-energy X-rays emitted from extremely hot regions and from particles accelerated to within a fraction of the speed of light by the supernova's shock wave.