“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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Demolishing the satellite’s hazardous fuel tank containing 1,000 pounds of hydrazine fuel was the primary goal, said a senior defense official on Thursday. He said it seems that the tank was totally demolished, and the pinpoint strike with a specially designed missile was an absolute success.

Many international leaders had protested against this as they see this incident as a thinly disguised attempt to test an anti-satellite weapon — one that could destroy rival country’s spy satellite and orbiting communications.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. “China is always having a watchful eye over the possible harm that was created by U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries.”

The Pentagon officials emphasized that the satellite strike was a one-time incident, it will definitely follow-up enormous amounts of data and research that can be studied by the military as it exerts maximum efforts to enhance its missile defense technologies.

After striking the satellite, Pentagon said, “Confirmation regarding the fragmentation of fuel tank will be available within 24 hours.” But after a short time the defense officials had disclosed that they had hit the fuel tank.

As the satellite was traveling at a low altitude at the time it was hit by the missile, the remains will begin to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere immediately, the Pentagon statement said.

“Almost all the remains will burn up on re-entry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days,” it said.

The missile used for this project alone cost nearly $10 million, and it is estimated that the total cost of the project was at least $30 million.

Both China and Russia had expressed their concerns regarding the shoot down by saying that it could destroy the outer space security.

President Bush had already gave approval last week for the shooting down of missile, deciding that it was important to demolish the toxic fuel to prevent any possible injuries if the satellite fall down in a populated area.

If the satellite was left alone, it would have hit the Earth during the first week of March.

The Russian defense ministry said that it looks like an indirect weapons test and an attempt to move the weapons race into space.

US officials told that the aim was to prevent potential risk to humans from the de-orbiting satellite, and not to test an anti-satellite weapon.

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