Gas cloud swings around gravity monster at the heart of the
Milky Way
Recent observations from April this year of the galactic
centre have revealed that parts of the in-falling gas cloud, which was detected
in 2011, have already swung past the black hole at the heart of our Milky Way.
Due to the tidal force of the gravity monster, the gas cloud has become further
stretched, with its front moving now already 500 km/s faster than its tail. The
findings confirm earlier predictions: the cloud will come so close to the black
hole in the course of the next year that it will be completely torn apart. With
the new, detailed observations, the astronomers from the Max Planck Institute
for Extraterrestrial Physics can now also place new constraints on the origins
of the gas cloud - it seems increasingly unlikely that it contains a faint star
inside, from which the cloud might have formed.