Investigating the Intrinsic X-ray Emission of the Blazar 1ES 1959+650 with Swift's XRT and NuSTAR*

Blazars are extremely energetic galaxies that emit light across the entire electromagnetic spectrum via synchrotron emission and possibly inverse Compton up-scattering. Through analysis of the blazar 1ES 1959+650, we aim to determine the intrinsic curvature of the blazar's spectral energy distribution in the X-ray band. This analysis provides insight into the mechanics of the emission and the column density of matter between the emitting region and the observer (Earth). The main purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of additional neutral hydrogen column density at the source via spectral energy distribution modeling in the X-ray band by comparing the log-parabolic model and power-law model representations of the source. Analysis was done with NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Software package with data from Swift's XRT and NuSTAR spanning from 2005 to 2024. The source displays significant variability across the epoch measured. Using periods of simultaneous Swift XRT and NuSTAR observations, we can model emission from 0.3 to 79 keV, showing a log-parabolic model with fixed neutral hydrogen column density equal to that within the Milky Way is preferred over a power-law model with additional column density. In this presentation, we will summarize these analyses, and provide interpretation in terms of intrinsic emission processes ongoing within the source.