Black hole could gobble approaching object, or not

Science : A new object has been spotted near Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and it may be on its way to being devoured. Stefan Gillessen and Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, and their colleagues observed the center of our galaxy at IR wavelengths using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. The instrument picked up a small gas cloud that appeared to be getting closer and closer to Sagittarius A* over a period of nine years. Because the astronomers detected the object at a wavelength of 3.76 microns but not at 2.16 microns, they believe it’s a cloud of gas, rather than a star, which would be brighter at the shorter wavelength. The object has doubled its speed from 1200 km/s in 2004 to 2350 km/s in 2011. Already beginning to stretch like interstellar spaghetti, the cloud will be close enough to the black hole in 2013 to be torn apart, fall in, and produce x rays observable from Earth. Andrea Ghez of UCLA has a different interpretation of the data: It’s evidence of a star surrounded by dust that has absorbed visible light and is re-emitting it at IR wavelengths. If that’s the case, the object won’t fall into the black hole in 2013, but will shoot past it.