#  It’s Snack Time in the Cosmos 

 





February 18, 2014

 

 

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"Black holes, the ultradense collapsed objects predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, are often depicted as voracious feeders whose extraordinary gravity acts like a one-way membrane: Everything is sucked in, even light, and virtually nothing leaks out.

Now, for the first time, astronomers may have a chance to watch as a giant black hole consumes a cosmic snack.

In March or April, a gas cloud that has been hurtling toward the center of the Milky Way is expected to collide with [Sagittarius A\*](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/saga.html), a black hole that lies just 26,000 light-years from [Earth](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/earth_planet/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier). (The actual event, of course, took place 26,000 years ago.)" (NY Times, It’s Snack Time in the Cosmos)

NY Times: [Read full article...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/science/its-snack-time-in-the-cosmos.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=1)

“The experience is as exciting for astronomers as it is for parents taking the first photos of their infant eating.”  
 *AVI LOEB, a theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard, on the prospect of observing a black hole devour a gas cloud.*

NY TImes, Feb. 18, 2014 Quote of the Day: [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/pageoneplus/quotation-of-the-day-for-tuesday-february-18-2014.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/pageoneplus/quotation-of-the-day-for-tuesday-february-18-2014.html?_r=0)

See simulation: [http://www.mpe.mpg.de/resources/pgn/g2/data/gcm\_with\_title.mpg](http://www.mpe.mpg.de/resources/pgn/g2/data/gcm_with_title.mpg)



 

 

 



 

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