WASHINGTON - NASA scientists have discovered a black hole, the smallest ever found that weighs approximately four times the mass of our sun and it is 15 miles in diameter.

“This black hole is actually pushing the limits,” said Nikolai Shaposhnikov, the study team leader of NASA. “Scientists were working hard for many years to find out the smallest possible size of a black hole, and this invention is a big step towards answering that question,” he said in a statement.

Though it is smaller, it seems to be stronger than other larger black holes found at the centers of galaxies. If anyone goes nearer to J1650 (the name given to the black hole), its gravity would stretch your body into a “strand of spaghetti,” said Shaposhnikov.

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PASADENA, Calif. - New observations made by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest that Rhea, the second-largest moon of Saturn, may have rings. If the rings were confirmed, it would be the first moon to have a ring system around it.

The Cassini spacecraft had detected a large debris disk which appeared to be like rings around the 950-mile-wide moon Rhea. Scientists firmly believe that the discs are composed of particles ranging from the size of pebbles to big rocks.

In contrast to the rings around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the alleged arcs around Rhea remain invisible and cannot be seen directly. Scientists confirmed the existence of arcs based on the measurements made by Cassini, which detected a fall in electrons on both sides of the moon, indicating that the existence of rings was absorbing the electrons.

This is an artist concept of the ring of debris that may orbit Saturn’s second-largest moon, Rhea. The suggested disk of solid material is exaggerated in density here for clarity.

Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

It’s uncertain that when the rings would have originated, one thing is certain that they originated as a result of a collision of an asteroid or comet which took place long ago that disgorged the debris around Rhea.

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Paris – Scientists have discovered immense oil resources in Titan, which is a moon of Saturn. The oil reserve of Titan is estimated to be several hundred times greater than that of earth.

An artist’s imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
Credits: Steven Hobbs

The immense reserve is detected at a location which is 1.2 billion kilometers i.e., approximately 750 million miles away from Earth, where average temperature itself will be minus 179 degrees Celsius.

Titan has several hundreds times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the available oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, said the European Space Agency (ESA).

In Titan, the ethane and methane falls from the sky in the form of rain, forming massive lakes and seas. It is believed that complex organic molecules called tholins are responsible for Titan’s oily dunes, said the ESA.

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Columbus has taken twenty-three years in the making. Columbus is a primary contribution of European Space Agency. The NASA scientists were at the elation while seeing their successful Atlantis lift off with Columbus space mission.

Cape Canaveral — shuttle Atlantis moved into its orbit with Europe’s gift to the international space station. Atlantis with its seven-man crew safely started from launch pad at 2:45 p.m. Rain and thunderstorms remained off though the sky was cloudy at launch time.

Columbus is designed with 23 feet long and 15 feet in diameter. It is a pressurized laboratory that can increase the space station’s research capability. The module weighs 22,700-pound; it was built in Italy and outfitted in Germany.

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