A gas cloud falling towards the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way

This video was created from a series of images of the centre of the Milky Way that were taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope between 2002 and 2011. They show not only the motions of the stars orbiting the central supermassive black hole, but also reveal a glowing blob of gas (in the circle) that is falling rapidly towards the black hole.