First NuSTAR image of the Sun

NuSTAR Sun

Above is the first image of the Sun taken by NASA’s X-ray telescope NuSTAR. The blue and green are NuSTAR X-rays in 2-3 keV and 3-5 keV, overlaid onto EUV emission from SDO/AIA (red). This image was recently released and has featured on many news sites (BBC, Time, National Geographic, etc) and made it to the Astronomy picture of the day. A&A’s Dr. Iain Hannah and Dr. Hugh Hudson are part of the NuSTAR solar team that is using this X-ray telescope, that normally looks at distant blackholes, to probe faint signatures of heating and particle acceleration in the solar atmosphere.