A black hole is making a meal of galactical mass fairly close

The tendency of astronomers to use the present continuous tense when describing gargantuan celestial events can be quite disconcerting, as is happening in the case of the “super-massive” black hole recently discovered in a relatively nearby galaxy. Reports say that NASA’s Chandra space telescope has spotted this jumbo black hole in the midst of the prosaically named NGC 5194 dwarf galaxy—a mere 26 million light years or so away from our own Milky Way—“burping” two colossal swathes of primordial gas. Apart from the scientific insights into the births and deaths of stars and planets offered by this gigantic and ongoing occurrence, the fact that a dark cosmic belcher has been unexpectedly espied spouting vapour so close to our little planet does not inspire calm.

More so since scientists believe the gaseous emanations to be a post-prandial reaction, given that black holes only ‘dine’ on cosmic bodies and an outer band of cooler hydrogen marks them as belches rather than incipient gulps. And Chandra revealing that these three-to-six-million year long vaporous after-effects of a black hole ingesting the proceeds of NGC 5194’s (star)dusty interaction with its flashy neighbour the Whirlpool galaxy, situated relatively close to us certainly reason enough for present continuous tension.