Countdown to a black hole show

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/26/12423938-countdown-to-a-black-hole-show?lite

6/26/2012 By Alan Boyle

Researchers are watching the first scenes of a cosmic show that's expected to heat up over the next year as a giant gas cloud approaches the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

The impending collision was the subject of a research paper published in Nature last December, and now the European Research Media Center is providing an update: By mid-2013, the cloud is expected to pass in the vicinity of the black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, at a distance of 36 light-hours, or less than 25 billion miles (40 billion kilometers).

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