Giant Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy (and a Video)

A new observatory in space has caught the giant black hole at the center of our home galaxy in the process of having a snack. We know that the at the very heart of the Milky Way there lurks a black hole with as much material inside as 3 - 4 million Suns. When material falls into such a black hole, just before it enters, it gets very hot by friction and gives off (not light but) a glow of x-rays.

Once material falls into a black hole, then no light or x-rays can escape from it. But just before any such stuff goes to its doom, we do see a flare of x-rays from it. It is just this sort of flare that the NuSTAR satellite detected in July (just about a month after it was launched). It wasn't really a full meal for the black hole, merely an afternoon snack, but the temperature of the glowing gas cloud before it fell in was an astounding 180 million degrees Fahrenheit.

The so called "super-massive" black hole at the center of our Galaxy is a relatively small one, compared to some of the really massive black holes in the centers of other galaxies.  Some of these have billions (thousands of millions) of times the mass of our Sun contained within them.

If you are already a black hole fan, such observations will probably just confirm your view of how weird black holes are. But if you are not sure what black holes are, I might recommend a little video that the SETI Institute made of me during a family event there. It's a brief, friendly explanation of just what black holes are and why falling into one is a "once-in-a-lifetime experience." You can see it at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DX_cc-IjpY