14 December 2011
Last updated at 13:37 ET
Simulations suggest that the cloud will be ripped to bits and partially swallowed by the black hole
Researchers have spotted a giant gas cloud spiralling into the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s centre.
Though it is known that black holes draw in everything nearby, it will be the first chance to see one consume such a cloud.
As it is torn apart, the turbulent area around the black hole will become unusually bright, giving astronomers a chance to learn more about it.
The cloud, which is described in Nature, should meet its end in 2013.
Researchers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope estimate that despite its size, the cloud has a total mass of only about three times that of Earth.
They have plotted the cloud’s squashed, oval-shaped path and estimate it has doubled its speed in the last seven years – to 2,350km per second.
It should spiral in to within about 40 billion kilometres of the black hole in the middle
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