 streaking inward toward a 2013 rendezvous with the Milky Way's supermassive black hole.)
INCOMING! An artist's representation of the galactic center shows a gas blob (red) streaking inward toward a 2013 rendezvous with the Milky Way's supermassive black hole.
Image: ESO
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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
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All of us, not just astronomers, have an obvious fascination with what happens when matter gets sucked into the maw of a black hole. Usually, we've had to watch from the equivalent of partial-view bleacher seats as these cosmic garbage disposals do their thing in the Milky Way and in distant galaxies. For once, though, we may have procured primo seats behind the dugout.
In the next few years, the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's center could shred and consume a cloud of dust and gas with the mass of a small planet.
In about 18 months the newfound object will draw near the cosmic orifice at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Its orbit will carry it to within about 36 light-hours of the black hole, roughly twice the distance now separating NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft from the sun.
That's when things could get interesting. A group of astronomers reports in a study published online December 14 in Nature that the black hole ought to rip the gas cloud apart and pull it inward, producing a detectable surge in x-ray emissions as the gas compresses and heats up. Depending on how the cloud breaks up, the black hole may feed on it for years to come, significantly brightening the faint glow that emanates from just outside the edge of the black hole, its event horizon, and providing astrophysicists a unique view of black hole digestion. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)
"Essentially, we have never seen before how any black hole in the universe is being fed," says study co-author Stefan Gillessen, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany. "Now we have the chance to watch something fall in." Gillessen and his colleagues identified the object and determined its trajectory using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
A number of stars orbit the Milky Way's central black hole, which contains the mass of four million suns. But an object as weakly bound as a gas cloud would not survive the intense gravitational pull in the galactic center. Gillessen and his colleagues estimate that the newfound blob is three times as massive as Earth, and they say it is already being distorted by the black hole's overpowering pull as it streaks toward its closest approach in 2013. Sometimes called "spaghettification," extreme gravitational effects stretch objects falling toward a black hole into long strands. "We see that happening to this cloud," Gillessen says. "It's being disrupted right now in front of our eyes. We see that spaghetti effect happening."
The infall, which ought to be observable with large telescopes such as the VLT and Keck telescopes on Earth and with NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, could give new clues about the environs surrounding the Milky Way's black hole. It could also provide new information about the behavior of supermassive black holes, which are found at the centers of all large galaxies.
But the prediction of an infall rests on the conclusion that the object streaking toward a flyby of the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole is indeed a loose blob of gas and not something much sturdier. Andrea Ghez, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the region surrounding the black hole, suspects that the inbound object is in fact a star. If that were the case, the object would be able to survive such a close passage of the black hole without being torn apart—in fact, astronomers have watched stars cruise to within 11 light-hours of the Milky Way's black hole and live to see another orbit. The black hole, denied its dinner, in that case would continue its steady whisper rather than letting out a roar.
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12 Comments
Add CommentIf the black hole is 27,000 light years away from here, doesn't that mean the gas cloud which would "meet its end" in 2013 actually already did so 27,000 light years ago and we are able to see it for the first time next year?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am sorta glad it is happening 2013 and after, and not next year, with all that crap about 12-21-2012 and that black hole they would be pointing at it and say see.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this12-21-2012 is the CME . The poison is then activated .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsidering we only found out about a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy recently. Plus, the fact we have only observed a very few large galaxies. I think this statement "It could also provide new information about the behavior of supermassive black holes, which are found at the centers of all large galaxies." is a bit of a jump in logical reasoning. If we ever observe all large galaxies and found this to be true then the statement would be true but as of now it's a bit over the top.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, we haven't found any large galaxies that can be proved /not/ to have a black hole. We've found one in every case we can check and we believe that active galaxies (such as quasars) must have a black hole, nothing else we know of can generate that level of power. But it's true that you can never prove universals - all swans were white until we reached Australia.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPS The sub who did the headline should be reprimanded. as the article says, the gas cloud is the *mass* of a planet - it must be billions of times the *size* of one.
This is a nitpick, but a light year is a measure of distance. This event happened about 27,000 years ago.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisokay, forewarned is to be forearmed! I've read and re-read the article. It's clear. The doom of the cloud awaits us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've taped all my doors and cashed my 401k. I've stocked up on milk and bread. So, go ahead -- Que the black hole thingy.
We are being sucked in a black hole as we speak
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat if these super-sized black holes are not so large after all? The original big bang could have been an unstable super-sized black hole that exploded in a way that sent an expanding ring of matter out into the universe and left behind a still super-sized black hole, but much smaller than the original, that exploded itself some time later. The original expanding ring of matter is traveling at a speed approaching the speed of light, so we only see a slight haze in the background of cosmic radiation, but it has gravity and continues to pull the part of the universe that we can see, from this later big bang, into an accelerating expansion and is the cause of what many astronomers think of as "black energy".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisblack holes only form where mass is.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisevery galaxy has a black hole in the centre of the massive mass / centre. do black holes form from massive mass?
seen as i have know idea about black holes. are there any black holes away from stars / mass?
if there is, do they go away after a small time.
it seams that the force of mass, or a massive force makes black holes appear / come.
I do remember a long time ago someone said a massive star blowing up, formed a black hole, but it went away shortly after that.
mass is also force. i could see how that would be right. if a star did blow up with that much force = mass, let alone mass near by, it would form a black hole, but if the massive force goes away, the black hole will to. this is why most black holes are in the centre of galaxy's.
well the black holes in the centre will stay for a very long time to the others in the milky way. there can not be any or many near the edge of a galaxy. but if there are any just out of the centre, they will be smaller and the more away from the centre, the smaller they will be. as long as they have finished eating.
Without mass, black holes would not be.
also all the stars flying around would put force on black holes. gravity / mass / force are the same thing.
Space wrap
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisstars blowing up making rippling affect on space wrap.
The affect of the stars blowing up sending rippling waves across space / space wrap. also the big bang would of two.
Well if a supernova blows up, would that be instantly., so the force would be the speed of light on space wrap.
Don't forget the force would not end unto it hit the bottom of space wrap / ended, so there would be know mass where the star was, but the force would still be ending at the bottom on space wrap. so space wrap will still be down from the force on it.
what speed does a star or supernova explode at. if it did push down on space wrap at 10% of C, would the space wrap retract back up, and above it?
Well because the stars mass has already pushed it down a bit, then the supernova explosion force, forces space wrap down more unto the force is gone. after the force is gone, space wrap will be under its line when it has no mass on it. so it would be down without mass on it by the time the force ends on it.
Would space wrap sling / retract back up fast, so it would make a rippling affect on space wrap?
so i take it a supernovae explodes at 10 or 20% of C. so the effect should not be instantly, so space wrap will retract with force, & once it retracts to its line with no mass on it, it will make a rippling affect / space wrap will go up above its line for a second making a rippling affect.
so like the string theory. will there will be rippling affects from all the supernovas blowing up all the time, that will send rippling across space or space wrap. would that fit into the string theory, or what would it do / mean?
what would happen at the end of the universe / space wrap, where like a suns magnetic field makes rippling affects, that make magnetic bubbles at the edge of the solar system. what would that affect have on space wrap at the end of space / universe / space?
would that rippling affect have anything to do with the universe expanding.
so i take it there are more and more stars blowing up now, and will be more and more in the future then there are now. so is that why the universe is speeding up / flying apart faster and faster? well the expansion of the universe?
SPACE WRAP
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisstars blowing up making a rippling affect on space wrap
The affect of the stars blowing up sending rippling waves across space / space wrap. also the big bang would of two.
Well if a supernova blows up, would that be instantly., so the force would be the speed of light on space wrap.
Don't forget the force would not end unto it hit the bottom of space wrap / ended, so there would be know mass where the star was, but the force would still be ending at the bottom on space wrap. so space wrap will still be down from the force on it.
what speed does a star or supernova explode at. if it did push down on space wrap at 10% of C, would the space wrap retract back up, and above it?
Well because the stars mass has already pushed it down a bit, then the supernova explosion force, forces space wrap down more unto the force is gone. after the force is gone, space wrap will be under its line when it has no mass on it. so it would be down without mass on it by the time the force ends on it.
Would space wrap sling / retract back up fast, so it would make a rippling affect on space wrap?
so i take it a supernovae explodes at 10 or 20% of C. so the effect should not be instantly, so space wrap will retract with force, & once it retracts to its line with no mass on it, it will make a rippling affect / space wrap will go up above its line for a second making a rippling affect.
so like the string theory. will there will be rippling affects from all the supernovas blowing up all the time, that will send rippling across space or space wrap. would that fit into the string theory, or what would it do / mean?
what would happen at the end of the universe / space wrap, where like a suns magnetic field makes rippling affects, that make magnetic bubbles at the edge of the solar system. what would that affect have on space wrap at the end of space / universe / space?
would that rippling affect have anything to do with the universe expanding.
so i take it there are more and more stars blowing up now, and will be more and more in the future then there are now. so is that why the universe is speeding up / flying apart faster and faster? well the expansion of the universe?