Planets and Moons  Universe  ID: 13568

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 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

Richard Binzel (MIT):
Scientist

Branden Allen (Harvard):
Scientist

Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.):
Technical Support

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center