“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.

This small black hole was once a star that has exhausted all its fuel and it eventually collapsed and shut down due to its own gravity.

This small black hole is situated in the XTE J1650-500 binary system of the constellation Ara of our Milky Way galaxy. With the help of NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite, Shaposhnikov and his colleague Lev Titarchuk found out a new method to estimate the size of the black hole.

“Based on the equations of Albert Einstein, a black hole having 3.8 times the mass of our Sun would be only 15 miles in diameter,” NASA said.”The invention of this new black hole makes the smallest object ever discovered outside our solar system,” said Shaposhnikov.

The smallest black hole which was identified earlier was GRO 1655-40, which weighs approximately 6.3 times the mass of the Sun.

A collapsed star smaller than J1650, would likely to form a neutron star and not a black hole, said the scientists.

Black holes can’t be seen and they’re identified by observing the activities taking place around them. Astronomers weigh the mass of black holes by using a relationship between the apparent size of the black hole and the X-rays emitted by the inundation of gas that twirl’s into the black hole’s disk from its neighboring star.

As the gas piles up near the black hole, it “becomes very dense and congested,” said Shaposhnikov in a press conference. “Therefore the matter cannot easily enter it has to squeeze into the black hole.”

Since the matter is squeezed, the gas gets heated up and emits X-rays.“This new invention is a big milestone for us that bring us much closer to the theoretically calculated limit,” said Shaposhnikov.

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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.

“There is also possibility that rings might have formed even at the time of Rhea’s formation,” said Geraint Jones, a space physicist from University College of London.

Till now, we were known that only planets have rings, added Jones, who began the research while at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.

The Cassini mission, which was a joint effort by NASA and the space agencies of Italy and Europe, was launched into space in 1997. The spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004. The mission is controlled by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

“It is the first time to detect a moon having rings around it”, said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Rhea, which is having a diameter of about 1500 kilometers, is the second-largest moon of Saturn. Cassini detected alleged arcs of debris which stretches several thousand miles from end to end said NASA.

“After excluding many other possibilities, we said these discs have similarities of rings,” said Jones. “No one might have expected rings around a moon.”

Cassini is the first spacecraft to explore the Saturn system of rings and moons from orbit.

‘Until now we believed that Saturn was the only planet having rings,’ said a scientist of Cassini mission. “Now we also have a moon of Saturn which seems to be a miniature version of it even more elaborately decorated parent.”

Relevant Links:

• Saturn’s Moon Rhea Also May Have Rings
• http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/rhea20080306.html

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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.

“Titan is just enclosed in a carbon covered material. It is a giant factory of organic chemicals,” said scientist Ralph Lorenz.

Revealing the mystery of Titan’s carbon-chemistry may help to find out the answer for how Earth’s carbon-based life began, said the researchers.

The fall of hydrocarbons from the sky, in the form of rain and get stored in massive deposits that form lakes and dunes. But now scientists are quantifying the material using observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Titan has long been considered as a place that might be somewhat like Earth. “The inventory of immense oil resource is an important break through into the geology and climate history of Titan.” said scientist Ralph Lorenz.

The 20 percent of Titan’s surface has been mapped by Cassini with the help of its radar. According to the statement of NASA, scientists have observed several hundreds of lakes and seas; each of it is estimated to have more hydrocarbon than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.

The total availability of natural gas on Earth is 130 billion tons. But the Titan’s lakes and seas individually have the equivalent of at least this much energy in the form of methane and ethane.

“This estimation is made based on the pictures of the lakes located in the North Polar Region,” Lorenz said. “We assumed that the southern polar region might also be similar, but we really don’t yet know how much liquid is there.”

The radar of Cassini has observed the southern polar region only once, and only two small lakes were identified.

Scientists also estimated the depth of Titan’s lakes by making some general assumptions based on the lakes on Earth.

“We know that the depth of some lakes are more than 10 meters or much deeper because they appear factually pitch-black to the radar,” said Ralph.

The volume of liquid present on the Titan’s surface is important because methane is a strong greenhouse gas. Titan will become much colder if the methane present on its surface gets expired. Scientists assume that the presence of methane in the Titan’s atmosphere might be due to the expulsion from volcanic eruptions.

Relevant Links: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMCSUUHJCF_index_0.html

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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.

“Space shuttle Atlantis sets a voyage of science to the space station. Columbus, will add an international flavor to the station” said NASA’s Launch Control. “No other launch will be more momentous than the Columbus, which brings the international participation,” said Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator.

Three hundred Europeans who gathered at the launch site celebrated with sparkling grape juice and French chocolates at the Kennedy Space Center. “We are all excited like heck,” said Alan Thirkettle, Europe’s space station program manager.

All fuel gauges in Atlantis’ were functioning well at the time of final stage of the countdown. The gauges failed in December due to faulty connector, and then the NASA redesigned to fix the problem.

Columbia disaster made scientist of NASA to be more careful with the Atlantis mission. The laser inspections are made as an important procedure after the Columbia disaster. “We’re coming back from some technical problems that led to the loss of Columbia.” -Said Griffin in an interview with The Associated Press.

Atlantis astronauts Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel will make a spacewalk to prepare the lab for its move. Crewmates Stan Love and Leland Melvin will pluck Columbus from the shuttle’s cargo and bolt it onto the station. The crew is scheduled to enter the lab on Monday.

“Some pieces of insulating foam fell off during the liftoff on Thursday, but they did not pose any threat” said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. “Small pieces have bounced off Atlantis’ but there is no damage”. He added.

The real work of the astronauts’ begins on Sunday. The astronauts’ will remove the 23-foot Columbus lab from Atlantis’ payload bay and attach with the space station with the help of robotic cranes. This will be assisted by two spacewalkers. Atlantis is planned for eleven days mission, but one more day in orbit will help the crew more time to prepare the European lab for experiments.

“Columbus discovered new world, and we are also discovering it.” – said Jean-Jacques Dordain European Space Agency’s chief.

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