UK Daily Mail ^[1]
Feb 5, 2013

A giant gas cloud will hit the Milky Way’s massive black hole this year which lies at the centre of our galaxy.

The cloud is predicted to hit the black hole known as Sagittarius A, entering its ‘atmosphere’, a thin haze of gas that swirls around it, in an event that could create shock waves seen throughout the galaxy.

The energy flares could be visible in X-ray wavelengths said Stefan Gillessen, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich, Germany.

Parts of the cloud might funnel into the black hole, where it will be heated to millions of degrees because of friction, giving off bursts of energy as it descends into Sagittarius A, reported Time ^[2].

This will mean if the bursts are powerful enough, they could be seen across the universe – something astronomers are eagerly looking for.

Full article here ^[1]