While astronomers have studied lightweight and heavyweight black holes for decades, the evidence for black holes with intermediate masses has been much harder to come by. Now, astronomers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., find that an X-ray source in galaxy NGC 5408 represents one of the best cases for a middleweight black hole to date.

"Intermediate-mass black holes contain between 100 and 10,000 times the sun’s mass," explained Tod Strohmayer, an astrophysicist at Goddard. "We observe the heavyweight black holes in the centers of galaxies and the lightweight ones orbiting stars in our own galaxy. But finding the ‘tweeners’ remains a challenge."

Several nearby galaxies contain brilliant objects known as ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). They appear to emit more energy than any known process powered by stars but less energy than the centers of active galaxies, which are known to contain million-solar-mass black holes.

"ULXs are good candidates for intermediate-mass black holes, and the one in galaxy NGC 5408 is especially interesting," said Richard Mushotzky, an astrophysicist at the University of Maryland, College Park. The galaxy lies 15.8 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.

Using the European Space Agency’s orbiting XMM-Newton observatory, Strohmayer and Mushotzky studied the source — known as NGC 5408 X-1 — in 2006 and 2008.

XMM-Newton detected what the astronomers call "quasi-periodic oscillations," a nearly regular "flickering" caused by the pile-up of hot gas deep within the accretion disk that forms around a massive object. The rate of this flickering was about 100 times slower than that seen from stellar-mass black holes. Yet, in X-rays, NGC 5408 X-1 outshines these systems by about the same factor.

Based on the timing of the oscillations and other characteristics of the emission, Strohmayer and Mushotzky conclude that NGC 5408 X-1 contains between 1,000 and 9,000 solar masses. This study appears in the October 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

"For this mass range, a black hole’s event horizon — the part beyond which we cannot see — is between 3,800 and 34,000 miles across, or less than half of Earth’s diameter to about four times its size," said Strohmayer.

If NGC 5408 X-1 is indeed actively gobbling gas to fuel its prodigious X-ray emission, the material likely flows to the black hole from an orbiting star. This is typical for stellar-mass black holes in our galaxy.

The International Space Station is just a few hours away from receiving a shipment of spares that should help keep it going well into the future.

Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to dock to the station at 10:53 a.m. and deliver two pallets carrying more than 20,000 pounds worth of spare equipment too large to be launched into space aboard any other vehicle.

Atlantis’ six-man crew received their wake-up call at 3:28 a.m. Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” was played for Mission Specialist Robert Satcher as the day’s wake-up song.

The morning will focus on preparations for the rendezvous and docking to the station. Commander Charles Hobaugh and Pilot Barry Wilmore will perform a few final corrective jet firings to refine the orbiter’s path to the station and position the vehicle for its rendezvous pitch maneuver 600 feet beneath the station at 9:52 a.m. While Hobaugh performs the “backflip” Expedition 21 Flight Engineers Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott will take photos from the station. Their photos will be sent to the ground for review by experts to ensure that the shuttle’s heat shield did not sustain any damage during Monday’s launch.

Once the maneuver is complete, Hobaugh will fly Atlantis ahead of the space station and slowly back it in for the docking to the station’s Harmony node. After a series of leak checks that should take about two hours, the hatches between the two vehicles will be opened and the two crews will start their joint operations.

Hatch opening will mark the end of Flight Engineer Nicole Stott’s two-and-a-half-month stint with the space station’s crew. She’ll officially become a member of the STS-129 crew, and the station will be manned by a five-person crew until Dec. 1, when Commander Frank De Winne and Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk will depart the station in their Soyuz vehicle. Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev will be left behind to man the station alone until the rest of the Expedition 22 crew arrives on Dec. 23.

Atlantis’ crew is scheduled to go to sleep just before 7:30 p.m. The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew’s workday or earlier if events warrant.

Information From Nasa Space : Atlantis Headed for Station Docking. The crew of space shuttle Atlantis awoke at 4:28 a.m. EST to the song “Higher Ground” by Stevie Wonder, played for Mission Specialist Robert L. Satcher Jr. Today is docking day in space, as space shuttle Atlantis closes the gap to the International Space Station and links up at 11:53 a.m.

A series of maneuvers will take place prior to docking. Later in the day, the Express Logistics Carrier 1 will be unberthed from Atlantis payload bay and handed off from the shuttle robotic arm to the space station robotic arm. At the end of the day, Mike Foreman and Satcher will “campout” in the Quest Airlock to prepare for Thursday’s spacewalk.

As most college students can tell you, there’s a big difference between drinking and getting drunk. "I have a saying that I learned my freshman year at DU: Drinking in moderation beats vomiting in excess,’" says Nicholas Sauer (University of Denver). "Knowing the limit and being able to handle oneself responsibly is what college is about"it’s a learning process."

Keep in mind that if you’re driving, there is no safe amount of alcohol to imbibe, despite the fact that legal sanctions may not kick in until you have passed a certain blood-alcohol threshold. (Some states have zero-tolerance policies for young drivers.) But forget about the law for a moment: You could kill someone or be killed if you drink and drive. That is all the incentive you need to never get behind the wheel after drinking.

Even if you happen to be legally sober, if you have the misfortune of being in a car accident"one that wasn’t your fault"you absolutely do not want the police to smell those two cups of beer or fruity spiked punch on your breath at the accident scene. Your credibility will be zero and police at the scene will be skeptical of your account"who could blame them? As a college student who smells like alcohol, you’ll be put on the defense, no matter what the circumstances.

Everyone has different limits when it comes to drinking, but a general rule of thumb is to have no more than one drink an hour; those with smaller builds, such as a woman who weighs 115 pounds, have an even lower limit.

A "drink" is generally defined as a 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor.

Other variables include exactly what kind of beer, wine, or spirits you’re drinking, as well as the serving size. If you’re drinking beer out of one of those ubiquitous red plastic 16-ounce cups, it counts as one-and-a-third beers"you should have at most two over a three-hour period. And if you’re drinking a strong punch-type concoction out of a giant cup, you could easily be consuming two or more "drinks" at once.

To avoid anything like that situation, John Andersen and his buddies at the University of Missouri"Columbia always take precautions. "Between my friends and me, we always have a person who is our designated driver"not because we know that we are going to become completely drunk, but because we know that zero tolerance means zero tolerance, and a DUI can practically ruin your life," he says. "No matter if you plan on getting drunk or not, if you know you are going to have a drink, you should turn your keys over. All of this sounds like complete and utter common sense, but it is incredible how many people don’t listen to common-sense ideas."

These days, it seems like cheating is everywhere, from the baseball diamond to the classroom. With stories of professional dishonesty and performance-enhancing drugs permeating the adult world, it’s no wonder that studies show academic cheating among children and teens on the rise. But while cheating on a test or plagiarizing an essay may seem a quick way to get a leg up, students are actually holding themselves back from the type of meaningful learning that will serve them best in life.

So how can parents keep kids from cheating in a society that seems to stress winning at any cost? According to Eric Anderman, Professor of Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University and co-editor of the book Psychology of Academic Cheating, the trick is to diminish the motivations that drive cheating in the first place.

“Kids cheat when they become stressed,” explains Anderman, who says that as the pressure to get good grades and high test scores increases, so does the incidence of cheating. Anderman says that although children who cheat in school do not fit any defined profile, they’re usually students “who are much more focused on getting good grades and extrinsically motivated rather than intrinsically motivated by a desire to learn.”

That means that the more pressure students feel, the more likely they are to resort to cheating. And although pen-and-paper notes and other familiar methods are still very much in use, cell phones and PDAs have opened up new opportunities for students gunning for top grades. “Obviously with more technology there are more methods kids use to cheat,” says Anderman. Browsing the Internet during a test, texting solutions or taking photos of answer sheets and messaging them to friends are all possible in the digital age, and enforcement of no phone policies can be tough for teachers.

It seems like yesterday you were counting pennies, leaves, and gold stars with your first grader. Now she’s taking sixth grade math. It’s a shock to lots of parents—and kids, too.

Here’s the good news: academic standards are designed to prepare children grade by grade and step by step. If your child has been working steadily through elementary school, sixth grade math will be just one more manageable step. In fact, studies show that when math is well taught, kids this age just love it—after all, it’s a way to discover sense and pattern in the world, and feel pretty darn smart in the process.

So what can you expect? Since states are allowed to choose their own standards under No Child Left Behind, there may be some variation. For specific details, remember to consult your state’s academic standards on the department of education website. It’s also wise to ask your school to show you its frameworks and texts, so that you can see exactly how the standards will be covered during the year.

In general, however, you can expect these themes in sixth grade math:

What should my child already know?

As a general rule, teachers hope that by the end of fifth grade students will have a very solid working knowledge of all four “operations”—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—along with fractions, simple percentages, decimals, and basic graphing. At a minimum, they should also know about basic formulas for perimeter, area, and geometrical shapes.

What should my child learn in this grade?

Number Sense: This builds directly on the basic skills of elementary school—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals—but now more complex. Talk about these computations with your child: How does a fraction translate into decimals? Why do we call multiplication and division “inverse operations”? This is also the time when many teachers start to introduce negative numbers, which can be tricky. You can help with real-life situations, like “Yes, you can borrow $10 from me to afford that toy, but that means your account will go down to negative $10.”

Kids Today“This period is a critical time for social, physical, cognitive and emotional development,” says Danny Plax, MD, board-certified pediatrician on staff with St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “Parents can help their children leave this stage with a good sense of self by focusing on what that child does well without making comparisons to other children. Instill a sense of responsibility by positively reinforcing them for good decisions and establishing consequences — but still offering your support — for choices that could be better.”

As a parent, you may be wondering if your children are developing on target. “It’s essential to remember that a great deal of variability among this age group is completely common,” says Suzanne Thompson, PhD, pediatric psychologist on staff with St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “Differences in personality, talents, activity choices and challenges should be expected — even among siblings.”

Getting Physical

During middle childhood, your kids will continue to grow at a steady rate — though perhaps not as rapidly as in infancy and early childhood.

“Boys and girls typically have similar growth patterns during this period,” says Dr. Plax. “Until puberty (which begins on average at age 10 1/2 for girls and 11 1/2 for boys) both sexes often gain two to three inches in height and three to eight pounds in weight annually.”

In addition to overall changes in size, middle childhood is also characterized by the development of small muscles, which helps to increase fine motor skills necessary for tasks like writing and learning to play musical instruments.

Moreover, some children (especially girls) may even begin to show the signs of puberty like breast buds or development of pubic hair toward the end of the 6 to 12 age range. If your child shows concern or anxiety about these characteristics, offer reassurance that the changes are completely normal.

Mental Masters

Beyond the changes they experience in their bodies, children at this age also experience a significant shift in the way they think. During the preschool stage, children tend to think concretely, but during middle childhood, they begin to grasp more abstract concepts. Their increasing cognitive capabilities help them master the challenges of school.

The perfect time to learn to read and write, the mental maturation of middle childhood enables both boys and girls to better focus their attention as well as take time to locate necessary information. In addition, the ability to order and sequence events and objects enhances mathematical abilities.

For many parents, it’s downright weird to have a fifth grader. Wasn’t it only yesterday that your kid was trembling at the kindergarten threshold? Suddenly, you’re the parent of a “senior” of elementary school. That means big gains in academics, and often growth spurts and hormone surges. Each kid moves at a different rate, and it can be a wild ride!

Fifth graders feel experienced and powerful, but confident as your child may seem, it’s important to take a good look at academic foundations. So what can you expect your child to study in fifth grade? For exact answers, look for academic standards on the website for your state’s department of education, and also inquire with your school. All public schools should comply with state standards; private schools often do as well, but have more variation in specific topics. As a general rule, though, you can expect the following:

One of the best parts of raising children is their love of exploration. And as children enter middle school, one of their favorite things to explore is power: who’s got it, how much do they have and how can I get some? Though this may be a difficult exploratory process for you and others in your household, it’s also a very important factor in your preteen’s social development.

Licensed clinical psychologist Erik Fisher has co-authored a book called “The Art of Empowered Parenting” which encourages parents to understand the power play going on between them and their children.

"When your child becomes an adolescent, they want to be able to express their own power, more so than they have in previous stages of development. They often feel frustrated with those in power around them, and their hormonal activity can decrease their abililty to manage and regulate their behaviors,” Fisher says.

Fisher says most of those power issues are based on perception, not just of your teen, but of the others around them.

Here are three of the most common ways children wish to be perceived by others:

Good: These children want to be accepted by people in charge.

Pros: They’re well-behaved.

Cons: They’re more likely to be coerced into dangerous situations, or to bury their emotions in order to please everyone.

Tip: Create an environment where your child knows it’s okay to think differently, and be themselves.

Right: These children believe that in almost any situation somebody has to be right and the other wrong.

Pros: They’re likely to challenge faulty systems.

Cons: They can appear arrogant, which is used to hide feelings of inadequacy behind their shield of righteousness.

Tip: Encourage your child to see failure as the ticket to learning and improvement.

Strong: Some kids, more likely boys, are born and/or socialized to look strong. Often, however, “good” kids who have lost faith and trust in those in authority will also switch over to wanting to appear strong more than good. This can come out of nowhere for some parents.

Pros: They may be more likely to assume a position of leadership and can be independent thinkers.

Cons: They start to directly challenge their parents and others in authority.

Tip: Don’t get hooked into a power struggle. Guide your child to use their power wisely, and use yours wisely too.

Fisher says parents should try to help their children stop looking at themselves in these black and white terms and instead encourage them to evaluate the spectrum of their power and emotions. Here’s how to do it:

Even though your preteen is gradually breaking away from your parental control, Fisher says, you’re continuing to build the relationship you’ll have for the rest of your life. And that’s priceless.