2013 looks set to be an interesting year for those of us residing in the Milky Way (page view stats indicate this applies to the majority of visitors to this blog). In the middle of this year, the supermassive black hole in the centre of our galaxy will be paid a visit by a cloud of gas with a mass three times that of the Earth. This could result in a bright flare of X-rays if some of this gas falls too near the black hole and is consumed, allowing us to probe the environment around it better than ever before. But how do we know there’s a black hole there in the first place, and why won’t this gas just get gobbled up without a trace. (follow on :http://cosmoblogy.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/taking-the-plunge/