[http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/12/black-hole.jpg](http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/19/nasa-finds-smallest-ever-black-hole-by-its-heartbeat-video/)
[NASA's](http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/14/nasa-building-a-harpoon-to-fire-at-comets-suddenly-renders-plot/) found the smallest black hole its ever seen, thanks to the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) -- weighing three times *less* than our own sun, it's near the bottom weight limit for the super-heavy phenomena. It was discovered by its unique "heartbeat", an X-Ray emission that takes place when gas sucked from a nearby star is swirled around the event horizon until friction causes it to super-heat. The disc then repeats the process every 40 seconds and when examined, looks just like the readout on an [ECG](http://www.engadget.com/tag/ecg/) machine. After the break we've got a video that talks you through it all and we won't mind if you start booming "Space... the final frontier..." halfway through -- we did too.
Continue reading NASA finds smallest ever black hole by its ‘heartbeat’ (video)
NASA finds smallest ever black hole by its ‘heartbeat’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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