Black hole envelops Mercury-size mass

Imagine going for decades without a substantial meal. According to recent observations, it's been 50 years since the black hole in the middle of the Milky Way took a big gulp.\nThis supermassive black hole, named Sagittarius A*, is equivalent in mass to 3 million suns -- and its appetite is proportionally as large. Astronomers estimate the gaseous "meal" ingested by the black hole tipped the scales at roughly the same mass as the planet Mercury.\nThis rare event was detected half a century after the fact by NASA's Chandra satellite. When black holes feed, they generate a "light echo" -- a burst of X-ray light reflected by the gas clouds nearby. Scientists found a light echo coming from Sagittarius A* that was about 1,000 times brighter and over 1,000 times longer than anything they had observed recently, suggesting the black hole had devoured a mass of unusual size.\nFindings were presented at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.\n"This is nothing like the feeding that black holes in other galaxies sometimes enjoy," Michael Muno of the California Institute of Technology said in a news release. "But it gives unique knowledge about the feeding habits of our closest supermassive black hole."\nUnfortunately, it may be awhile before Sagittarius A* gets to fill up again.\nFrederick K. Baganoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said stars and gas don't often pass in that direction. \n"The huge appetite is there," he said, "but it's not being satisfied"