OSIRIS-REx Observes a Black Hole

The Osiris Rex mission made an unexpected discovery of a black hole 30,000 light years away using the Rexus instrument, originally designed to study asteroid Bennu. Rexus detects X-rays through a mask pattern, allowing scientists to pinpoint their origin. The black hole, a newly flaring X-ray binary, was also identified by Japan's Maxi telescope and NASA's NICER on the ISS. Earth's atmosphere blocks X-rays, so such observations are only possible from space, marking a first for interplanetary space detection.

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