Cloud suicide will wake black hole sleeping giant

Scientists say massive black hole at galactic center could awaken in 2013

when it gets closer in 2013 it will plough into the halo of hot gas around the hole"
Sorry to be pedantic, but in reality this happened 26,000 years ago, it is just that we are to observe it in 2013.

The sleeping giant at the centre of the Milky Way is about to wake up. A suicidal gas cloud is heading towards the galaxy's supermassive black hole, which will probably swallow the cloud, generating enormous flares of radiation that could help explain why the black hole is normally so placid. The doomed cloud was a surprise to astronomers. "We have been looking at the galactic centre for 20 years, but mainly to observe the motion of stars," says Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany. Genzel's colleague Stefan Gillessen spotted the cloud in images from the Very Large Telescope array in Chile, taken in March this year. It is an unusually dense cloud, not much bigger than our solar system and carrying about three times the mass of Earth

Shredded cloud:

The team realised that the cloud also appears in earlier images, giving them a sequence that reveals its path. It is moving at almost 2500 kilometres per second towards our galaxy's black hole, Sagittarius A*.

At present Sagittarius A* is strangely quiet, unlike quasars, the hyperactive black holes that emit huge amounts of radiation, fuelled by inflowing gas. Our black hole gets much less gas, and for some reason this starvation state makes it much less efficient than a quasar, producing only a thousandth as much radiation per kilogram of fuel.

While a star would just sail past our black hole unscathed, the loose mass of gas heading towards it is more vulnerable. It is already being stretched out by the black hole's gravity, and when it gets closer in 2013 it will plough into the halo of hot gas around the hole.

Unlucky timing

That should send shockwaves through the cloud to heat it to several million degrees, and according to the group's simulations the gaseous collision will shred the cloud into filaments. This turmoil may mean that much of the cloud ends up swirling right down into the black hole.

"By dumping more material in there, the cloud could drive the system into a higher efficiency regime," says Ginzel. There may be one huge flare of radiation or several over the coming decades.

There's no danger of the active black hole harming Earth. And though sadly not visible to the naked eye, this radiation will give astronomers clues as to why our black hole is normally so different from quasars.

"There is evidence that the galactic centre was more luminous within the last few thousand years, and we are unlucky in living at a time when it appears to be unusually dormant," says astrophysicist Martin Rees at the University of Cambridge, who was not part of the study.

Source

reply to post by AncietSoul


Just read it..

first I was like

but then I found what I was looking for

There's no danger of the active black hole harming Earth

And I was like

It'll be cool to get to observe though not directly the black hole coming to life....
It lives for destruction.
Awesome.

Starred for thread title.

2013? What happened to 2012?

reply to post by Cloudsinthesky


It means nothing will happen in 2012.. will be another peaceful year

reply to post by Vandalour


Even I thought the same while reading. Once I make sure there is nothing about doom & gloom then I posted it. ortherwise people will start jumping on me..

reply to post by Xcouncil=wisdom


It will be awesome if we are able to see that live with naked eye..but it will never happen...

if we're seeing this now, then surely this all happened about 27000 years ago?

reply to post by Acidtastic


Yup. But until otherwise informed we believe nothing travels faster than the speed of light...so even if we are watching this happen in the infrared...its like watching it in real time...

Now, maybe them folks at CERN could use this as a proof for their suspicion or hypothesis of faster than light particles...is there any other evidence of this gas clouds destruction to be found reaching us before it is seen by the Very Large Telescope?

reply to post by AncietSoul


Interesting this seems like its related to the 8wheel or Great Celestial Conjunction (when the Earth Cross aligns with the Galactic Cross) so maybe the hot gas will act somewhat like a key or starter to open a entrance to Earth locations. I know I think outta box more then the usual. snf

Imagine if the cloud was pushed there to open......