News NASA's RXTE Detects 'Heartbeat' of Smallest Black Hole Candidate An international team of astronomers has identified a candidate for the smallest-known black hole using data from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The evidence comes from a specific type of X-ray pattern, nicknamed a "heartbeat" because of its resemblance to an electrocardiogram. The pattern until now has been recorded in only one other black hole system. Full Story More News: The Heart Of Cygnus, NASA's Fermi Reveals A Cosmic-ray Cocoon Researchers Detail How A Distant Black Hole Devoured A Star News Archive Special Feature Featured Scientist: Dr. Joanne 'Joe' Hill Joanne "Joe" Hill was born in the UK, in Leicester, about 100 miles north of London. She grew up in a small village of 100 houses, and as a child she attended a small school with about 80 people. Later, she attended the University of Leicester because it had a strong space program. There, she was able to learn to build instrumentation that would be able to survive the space environment, which is the area of astronomy she most wanted to go into. "Ultimately, I wanted to be an astronaut. That was one of the drives behind it," she said. Read more. Featured Scientist Archive Special Exhibit Satellite Showcase: Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is the latest high energy gamma-ray observatory launched by NASA. It is designed to study energetic phenomena from a variety of celestial sources. Read more.