Today, modern astronomers believe that most large galaxies host supermassive black holes at their center. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is no exception. Sagittarius A* (pronounced as "Sagittarius A-star") is our central black hole, which is located more than 26,000 light-years from Earth. This beast contains the estimated mass of approximately 4 million suns. Due to the nature of black holes, we can't actually see them directly; however, we are able to infer their existence through the interaction with their surroundings. Unfortunately, this has been problematic with Sagittarius A, as the black hole is currently dormant (meaning that it isn't actively consuming material at the moment -- something that is not unusual, as objects can stably orbit a supermassive black hole without being sucked into the event horizon by their immense gravitational pull).
However, a year or so ago, astronomers discovered that a rather large gas cloud looked as if it would meet its death via the black hole that is Sagittarius A. Such an event would give us the opportunity to study the environment surrounding Sag A, perhaps even helping to shed some light on the inner workings of this poorly understood central region of the Milky Way galaxy -- an area plagued by large concentrations of fine interstellar dust grains, which effectively obscure the region from view at optical wavelengths.
As it turns out, scientists were correct. Just a few days ago, using the ESO's "Very Large Telescope," astronomers were able to capture Sag A consuming the gas cloud in real time. (As in, they were able to witness the cloud as it spiraled inward, instead of finding out about it after-the-fact. The event itself took place more than 26,000 years ago. The light is just now reaching Earth.) The cloud made its closest approach from the black hole at a distance that was more than five times the distance between Neptune and the Sun (about 25 billion km). From this relatively close proximity, the gas cloud was stretched into a tail (like taffy) by tidal forces, causing it to extend beyond 160 billion km. The remainder of this so-called tidal tail wound up being sent spiraling away at speeds close to about 700 km per second (yes, per second).
You can watch the actual video here: http://youtu.be/BabTLAAhhNs
Further Reading:
"Astronomers watch as a gas cloud gets torn to shreds by a black hole:"
http://io9.com/astronomers-watch-as-a-gas-cloud-gets-torn-to-shreds-by-824932258
"Milky Way's Giant Black Hole to Eat Space Cloud in 2013:"
http://www.space.com/16388-milky-way-black-hole-eats-cloud.html#sthash.GmPvGife.dpuf
Related Reading:
How Can Black Holes Become Dormant?
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/?p=3017
A Black Hole Study:
http://tinyurl.com/blackhole-study-fqtq-fb
Sagittarius A*
http://tinyurl.com/sagA-FQTQ-fb
Image Source: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62845000/jpg/_62845040_62831167.jpg
