High school students’ data-mining project revealed an enigmatic X-ray source in the archive of the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-Ray Observatory.
A group of 12th graders in Italy—most not even born when XMM-Newton launched in 1999—teamed up with scientists at Milan’s National Institution of Astrophysics (INAF).
The collaboration was part of the Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky project (EXTraS), an international research study of variable sources from the first 15 years of XMM-Newton observations.