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The video is positively ghostly. Clumps of gas swirl around the black hole, traveling at about 30 percent of the speed of light.
Astronomers collected the data for the visualization using an instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, located in the deserts of northern Chile. The instrument, appropriately named GRAVITY, detected flares of infrared radiation coming from the disk surrounding Sagittarius A*. The researchers believe the bursts originated very close to the black hole, in an incredibly tumultuous region known as the innermost stable orbit. Here, cosmic material is slung around violently, but it remains far away enough that it can circle the black hole safely without getting sucked into the darkness.
If the thought of orbiting a monstrous, star-gobbling black hole spooks you, don’t worry. Earth, located about two-thirds out from the center of the Milky Way, is at a very safe distance. The planet is in no danger of being consumed and wiped off the face of the universe.
But, like everything else in the galaxy, it has long been subject to the black hole’s whims. When black holes belch radiation out into space, the outflow can heat surrounding gas so much that it prevents it from cooling. If cosmic dust can’t cool, it can’t condense to form individual, brand-new stars, including ones like our sun. Scientists suspect that the fates of galaxies—whether they produce new stars or stop altogether—rests with the supermassive black holes at their centers.
On the other hand, if the thought of the Milky Way’s black hole eating all by its lonesome makes you sad, if you’re actually rather offended that black holes are routinely described as monsters, don’t worry about that, either. Sagittarius A* has plenty of friends. Some astronomers predict that as many as 10,000 smaller black holes reside near the center of the galaxy.
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