The discovery of a new black hole 30,000 light-years from Earth

NASA accidentally captured an X-ray burst, a phenomenon that occurs when black holes suck matter from stars in the constellation Columba.

Surface soil X-ray spectrometer (REXIS), a device mounted on NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft, is responsible for measuring X-rays emanating from the asteroid Bennu. However, it accidentally recorded an X-ray outbreak from a new black hole in the constellation Columba (Thien Cap) last November.

An X-ray burst from the MAXI J0637-430 black hole recorded by the REXIS device.(Photo: NASA).

"According to our initial test, no object has been recorded at that location in the universe," said Branden Allen, a scientist at Harvard University who first realized the remarkable point in the data. of REXIS, said. The scientists named the new black hole MAXI J0637-430.

A week earlier, the device on the International Space Station (ISS) also detected an outbreak of X-rays from low Earth orbit. However, REXIS does this from millions of kilometers away from Earth, while flying around the asteroid Bennu. This is the first time such an X-ray outbreak has been detected from interplanetary space, according to NASA.

REXIS is made by researchers and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University."Detecting an X-ray outbreak is a proud moment for the REXIS manufacturing team. This means our equipment is working as expected and meets NASA's scientific equipment requirements." , "Said Madeline Lambert, a graduate student at MIT.

Black holes can create X-ray bursts when drawing matter from surrounding stars. This phenomenon can only be observed from outer space because the atmosphere has shielded the Earth from X-rays.

Meanwhile, NASA still intends to send the Osiris-Rex to the Bennu surface to study. If the mission succeeds, the ship will bring soil samples from Bennu back to Earth in 2023.