Black Hole Stretching Gas Cloud Into ‘Spaghetti’ Strands [Video]

What happens when a black hole starts to eat a giant gas cloud? Astronomers have been observing the fascinating processes at the center of the Milky Way and recently released a video simulation of the event.

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have been studying the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. In 2011, they noticed a giant gas cloud being slowly pulled toward the black hole.

Recent observations show that the gas cloud is now being sucked into the black hole at a speed of more than 6 million MPH.

The ESO writes on YouTube: “This simulation shows a gas cloud, discovered in 2011, as it passes close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2013 show that the cloud is so stretched that the front part of it has passed the closest point and is traveling away from the black hole at more than 10 million km/h, whilst the tail is still falling towards it.”

Data from 2004 suggests that the giant gas cloud was once shaped like a large sphere. As it approaches the black hole, however, the gas cloud has elongated and is now being stretched out like spaghetti.

Stefan Gillessen, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, told the Huffington Post: “Like an unfortunate astronaut in a science fiction film, we see that the cloud is now being stretched so much that it resembles spaghetti.”

Gillessen adds that the recent observations make it clear that the gas cloud does not contain a star.

Gillessen said: “This means that it probably doesn’t have a star in it. At the moment we think that the gas probably came from the stars we see orbiting the black hole.”

Here’s a video of the gas cloud spinning toward the black hole.