Elementary Astronomy News Highlights

Each week in 107-02 we will discuss something interesting that has been in the news. The subjects will be drawn from the New York Times, [http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ Astronomy Picture of the Day], and press releases from NASA, the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory, or the Space Telescope Institute. If there is something interesting from one of our telescopes we may tell you about that too. This page has the highlights.

Week of January 9, 2012

The science journal Nature reports the discovery of a cloud of gas that is on a trajectory to fall into the million-solar-mass black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Click this link to see what they had to say.You may have to be connected through the University of Louisville's network to read the full article.

Nature Volume 481 Number 7379 pp5-108

A gas cloud has been spotted approaching the Milky Way's central black hole. Observations of its closest approach, expected to occur in mid-2013, may offer insight into the black hole's immediate surroundings.