University students and researchers working on a NASA mission orbiting a near-Earth asteroid have made an unexpected detection of a phenomenon 30 thousand light years away. Last fall, the student-built Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) onboard 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.
Credits
James Tralie (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Lead Producer Lead Editor Narrator
Brittany Enos (The University of Arizona): Lead Writer
John Caldwell (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Videographer
Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Videographer