Black Hole Meltdown in the Galactic Center Video

Black hole extravaganza in 1080p. From ESOcast. Not long ago, watching something being ripped apart as it falls towards a giant black hole would be science fiction. This is now reality.

Observers under dark skies, far from the bright city lights, can marvel at the splendor of the Milky Way, arching in an imposing band across the sky. Zooming in towards the center of our galaxy, about 25000 light years away, you can see that it is composed of myriads of stars.

This is a pretty impressive sight, but much is hidden from view by interstellar dust, and astronomers need to look using a different wavelength, the infrared, that can penetrate the dust clouds. With large telescopes, astronomers can then see in detail the swarm of stars circling the supermassive black hole, in the same way that the Earth orbits the Sun.

The Galactic Center harbors the closest supermassive black hole known, and the one that is also the largest in terms of its angular diameter on the sky, making it the best choice for a detailed study of black holes.

This black hole's mass is a hefty four million times that of the Sun, earning it the title of supermassive black hole. Although it is huge, this black hole is currently supplied with little material and is not shining brightly. But this is about to change.

Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, a team of astronomers has discovered a new object that is heading almost straight towards the black hole at vertiginous speed. The object is not a star, but a cloud of gas.

"The cloud consists mainly of hydrogen gas, gas which we see anyhow in the galactic center all over the place. This particular cloud weighs more or less three times the mass of Earth. So it's a rather small and tiny blob only, but it glows very brightly in the light of the stars which are surrounding it ."

As the astronomers watch, the cloud has been picking up pace as it gets closer to the giant black hole. Its speed has doubled in the last seven years and it is now speeding towards the black hole at more than 8 million kilometers per hour.

The astronomers have already seen the cloud's outer layers becoming more and more disrupted over the last few years as it approaches the black hole. But the exciting part is yet to come.

"The Black hole, imagine it sitting here, has a tremendous gravitational force and the cloud, as it comes in, it will be elongated and stretched, it will become essentially like spaghetti. It will be elongated and falling into the black hole."

"The next few years will be really fantastic and exciting because we are probing the territory. Here this cloud comes and gets disrupted, but now it will begin to interact with the hot gas right around the black hole. We have never seen this before."

No one knows what will happen next. The cloud will probably heat up and may start to emit powerful X- rays as it gets disrupted. In the end the material will eventually disappear by falling into the black hole. For the scientists, this event is truly a unique chance to probe the hot gas around the black hole.

"But this process of how material gets into the black hole really is not clear to us we don't understand it in any detail. And here in the galactic center we have an opportunity so to speak to have a probe of this process. How material really gets added to the black hole, and what the physical processes are, how the interactions happen in this very central region. That's a fantastic opportunity."

This is indeed science fiction becoming science fact.

Super? Massive ...
Super? Massive Black Hole. I thought the people at N.A.S.A are creative...

@MovieTrim like ...
@MovieTrim like Max? Headroom (early 80s) lol

wait, objects get ...
wait, objects get lengthened when entering a black hole, and? shortened when approaching the speed of light? What would happen to an object moving at light speed straight into a black hole?

to? think: this ...
to? think: this actually has already happened... 25,000 years ago

@xjoe1988x? true, ...
@xjoe1988x? true, but look out at the stars and you will see a spiral galaxy.

Why? are these guys ...
Why? are these guys dressed the same.

I wanna go down to ...
I wanna go down to black hole? *O*"

none of this galaxy ...
none of this galaxy universe stuff would mean a thing? to me without all of the computer animations that they come up with. it makes it look real but really its not.

@wonszlol not ...
@wonszlol not bigger,? actually a lot smaller. But 4 millions times more mass.

4 Milion times ...
4 Milion times bigger than our Sun? Holy mother? of science :O

I? got another ...
I? got another reason to live.

@MovieTrim I call ...
@MovieTrim I call this "pecking reflex", it? reminds me of when pigeons walk... xD

@stunt509 Eukaryota ...
@stunt509 Eukaryota.?

Poor? gas...
Poor? gas...

@stunt509 egg. Eggs ...
@stunt509 egg. Eggs predate chickens by millions of years.?

@gaminggalor You ...
@gaminggalor You child.?

@stunt509 a? single ...
@stunt509 a? single celled organism

@stunt509 your? mom
@stunt509 your? mom

@piratebri A buffer ...
@piratebri A buffer under run has nothing to do with? your monitor.

what came first ...
what came first the? chicken or the egg?

I love these videos ...
I love these videos every week.. just sucks my nice 30" monitor is about to die on me. I cant watch 1080p videos anymore without the video catching up during parts with lots of graphics... Have to downgrade to the lowly 720p :(?

God's incredible? ...
God's incredible? hydrogen fart is about to meet its fate.

Scientist: ooh ...
Scientist: ooh lookie a black? hole at the centre of ze galaxy! us: HURHURSUPERMASSIVEBLACKHOLEHURRHURR

Black? holes could ...
Black? holes could lead to other universes, or they can just release the matter that has been broken down. Black holes release heat apparently.

@gayfishby Black ...
@gayfishby Black holes aren't a single body. The "Black Hole" includes the Accretion disk, Event Horizon and the Singularity. A Singularity is the actual Mass of the black hole, and has no? size or shape and infinite density, so Black holes aren't really 3D spheres.

@Grey13Human yes ...
@Grey13Human yes that's unfortunately true. nothing is more annoying than an idiot who thinks he is intelligent. "I know that I know nothing"? [Plato's Socrat]

music???? at 4;15
music???? at 4;15

Its creepy? to ...
Its creepy? to think that black holes are actually 3D spheres in their shape. They are not flat at all. Like a big ball of darkness.

@ignaciojork ...and ...
@ignaciojork ...and everybody is? convinced that they are in this tiny part.

space rip? RIP
space rip? RIP