Nov 082018
Yow:
Astronomers see material orbiting a black hole *right* at the edge of forever
Clouds of dust have been directly observed orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, just outside of the minimum stable circular orbit radius. Due to the way that the massive gravity of a black hole bends spacetime the closer you get, there is a minimum distance where you can actually orbit the thing; any closer and you’ll actually get drawn in. The orbital velocity is 30% lightspeed.
A telescopic view of the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* (“Saj Ay-Star”). You can clearly see stars zipping around the black hole, though not the hole itself.