English: Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered a gas cloud with several times the mass of the Earth accelerating towards the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. This is the first time ever that the approach of such a doomed cloud to a supermassive black hole has been observed. This ESOcast explains the new results and includes spectacular simulations of how the cloud will break up over the next few years.

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Credit:ESO.

Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser and Luis Calçada.
Editing: Herbert Zodet.
Web and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi Shida.
Written by: Mathieu Isidro and Richard Hook.
Narration: Gaitee Hussain.
Music: zero-project (zero-project.gr) and movetwo.
Footage and photos: ESO, MPE/M. Schartmann, MPE/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)/VISTA/J. Emerson/Digitized Sky Survey 2, Luis Calçada, Stéphane Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard), José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org).
Directed by: Richard Hook and Herbert Zodet.

Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen.