OSIRIS-REx Observes a Black Hole

University students and researchers working on a NASA mission orbiting a near-Earth asteroid have made an unexpected detection of a phenomenon 30,000 light-years away. Last fall, the student-built Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detected a newly flaring black hole in the constellation Columba while making observations off the limb of asteroid Bennu. The glowing object turned out to be a newly flaring black hole X-ray binary – discovered just a week earlier by Japan’s MAXI telescope – designated MAXI J0637-430.

Music is "Castles and Cathedrals" from Universal Production Music.

Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

James Tralie (ADNET):
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Brittany Enos (University of Arizona):
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John Caldwell (AIMM):
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Rob Andreoli (AIMM):
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Richard Binzel (MIT):
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Branden Allen (Harvard):
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