Clouds circling supermassive black holes

Astronomers see huge clouds of gas orbiting supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. Once thought to be a relatively uniform, fog-like ring, the accreting matter instead forms clumps dense enough to intermittently dim the intense radiation blazing forth as these enormous objects condense and consume matter. Artist's concept of a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy. Credit: NASA / JPL / CaltechThe international team reports their sightings in a paper to be published in t...