Scientists Discover how a Blackhole feeds

A simulation shows how a gas cloud approaching our galaxy's supermassive black hole may break apart.

Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, an international team of scientists has found a cloud of charged gas racing fast towards the black hole.The cloud of gas is about three times as massive as earth and as already begun to break up due to black hole's gravitational forces."The team thinks the cloud will reach the event horizon—a black hole's point of no return—some time in 2013, creating a bright radiation flare that will shed new light on the black hole's feeding behavior.", reports Discovery News.


"This is really the very first time we will see how a black hole feeds. It's very exciting," said study co-author Stefan Gillessen, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
"What's more, the black hole's "meal" should last for about ten years", he added," giving astronomers ample time to study what happens in the surrounding region."