A Gas Cloud on the Way to the Supermassive Black Hole in the Galactic Center

As we wait to line up with the Milky Way’s Galactic Center on December 21, 2012, the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center waits for a dense gas cloud, three times the diameter of the earth, to fall into its center.

Or anyway, the light from this dense gas cloud on the verge of falling into the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center started beaming toward us 27,000 years ago.

Who knows what’s happening at the Galactic Center right now! It will take 27,000 years to find out.

Nonetheless, it’s fun learning about what WAS happening at the Galactic Center 27,000 years ago in this brief, information-packed article at Nature. By the way, the Galactic Center is in the constellation of Sagittarius and hence is called, Sgr A.

Here we report the presence of a dense gas cloud approximately three times the mass of Earth that is falling into the accretion zone of Sgr A*. 

A Gas Cloud on the Way to the Supermassive Black Hole in the Galactic Center