glenc
18-05-2013, 11:02 AM
"A mysterious object is hurtling toward the supermassive black hole lurking in our galaxy’s center. Known as G2, the object looks like a tiny bit of fuzz in images taken by some of the most powerful infrared telescopes. In fact, it could be anything from a gas cloud with the mass of three Earths (http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3264) to an enshrouded star (http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.5280) or even an evaporating protoplanetary disk (http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.4822).
Whatever it might be, G2 will whizz past our galaxy's central black hole (often called Sgr A*) in mid-September. It'll pass just 180 times the distance between Earth and the Sun away from the black hole, an event that affords astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to watch the beast devour a snack."
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/newsblog/A-Cosmic-Sleight-of-Hand-206975291.html
Whatever it might be, G2 will whizz past our galaxy's central black hole (often called Sgr A*) in mid-September. It'll pass just 180 times the distance between Earth and the Sun away from the black hole, an event that affords astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to watch the beast devour a snack."
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/newsblog/A-Cosmic-Sleight-of-Hand-206975291.html