Based on the material's speed, the research team estimated that the bubbles formed from an energetic event between 6 million and 9 million years ago. So the last meal that the supermassive black hole of the Milky Way had was after the dinosaurs became extinct," says Bordoloi. It may have been a cloud of gas flowing into the black hole, which fired off jets of matter, forming the twin lobes of hot gas seen in X-ray and gamma-ray observations. There are stars orbiting the galactic centre, and if they fall into the black hole at some point, we might see a good light show. "By studying the flow of gas into and out of the galaxy, we can study the fate of the Milky Way.

Source: Economic Times April 09, 2017 11:52 UTC