VLT followed the beginning of the "dinner" the black hole at the Galactic center - Reuters

MOSCOW, July 17 – RIA Novosti. Telescope VLT conducted the first series of observing how the supermassive black hole Sgr A * in the center of our galaxy began “to eat” a small gas-dust cloud G2, found the two years ago and found that it extended over 160 billion miles and “overclocked” to 1% of the speed of light, say astronomers in an article accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

“As the hapless astronaut into a science-fiction movie we found the cloud is now stretched to the extent that it resembles spaghetti. This means that inside him, apparently no stars. According to our view, the “parent” of the cloud may have star orbiting a black hole, “- said Reinhard Gentsel (Reinhard Genzel) from the Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics at the Max Planck Garching (Germany).

stars and galaxies. Pictures of Very Large Telescope

In spring 2011 Gentsel and colleagues found a small cloud of hot gas G2, which moves with tremendous speed to the supermassive black hole Sgr A * at the center of our galaxy. Part of astronomers suggest that the cloud contains a dim star, while others deny this possibility.

New observations made with the SINFONI spectrograph and camera NACO in the telescope VLT, enabled the group to Gentselev confirm their initial hypothesis that the cloud does not contain a star. According to astronomers, in April of this year, this collection of gas and dust as to get close to a black hole, stopping at a distance of 25 billion miles away from its borders.

Because of the “stretch” the clouds and the relativistic effects that exist in the vicinity of the black hole, we will be able to observe this stage, “lunch” black hole Sgr A * over the subsequent years. Scientists say we can already tell that it is not inside the star. This is supported by two fact – the brightness of a cloud has not changed in recent months, and its structure is sufficiently uniform that it would not be possible if it existed was shining.

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