OSIRIS-REx Observes a Black Hole
On Nov. 11, 2019, while the REXIS instrument was performing detailed science observations of Bennu, it captured X-rays radiating from a point off the asteroid’s edge. This video shows the REXIS team building the instrument and the data received when it glimpsed MAXI J0637-430.
Music is "Castles and Cathedrals" from Universal Production Music.
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
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Producer
- James Tralie (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Editor
- James Tralie (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Narrator
- James Tralie (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Writer
- Brittany Enos (The University of Arizona)
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Videographers
- John Caldwell (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.)
- Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.)
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Scientists
- Richard Binzel (MIT)
- Branden Allen (Harvard)
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Technical support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Release date
This page was originally published on Monday, March 2, 2020.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:45 PM EDT.