The answer to this question is never no!

If nothing else, I'm upvoting for 'vertiginous'.

8,000,000 mph = 1.2% light speed. Not too shabby.

I have a problem with the animation. It treats the cloud as an entity of X mass. It isn't. It's a cloud. The main part of the cloud wouldn't fly by, it would suck down the drain like a toilet.

>> ^Payback:

8,000,000 km/h = ~4970969.537898672 mph which is not too shabby.


FTFW

Well, they did say they're not really sure what's going to happen. The animation is just one possible trajectory of events. But I don't think it's an unlikely one. You just noted that the cloud is moving at 1.2% of light speed - and it's still accelerating. The cloud isn't a single body, but I'd guess that for any bit of mass, the only relevant gravitational forces are the black hole and the rest of the cloud. Depending on just how close it passes and how fast it's moving (.03c? 0.05c?), there won't be enough tangential acceleration due to the black hole's gravity to deflect large amounts of matter from the nearest part of the cloud during the first pass.

It would be more spectacular if it was shredded just enough to form a bright spiraling ring around the hole....
>> ^Payback:

I have a problem with the animation. It treats the cloud as an entity of X mass. It isn't. It's a cloud. The main part of the cloud wouldn't fly by, it would suck down the drain like a toilet.

Also at vertiginous speed, how close is that to going plaid?

So about 0.074c. I'll be interested to see the highest velocities they measure.
>> ^Bloodscourge:

>> ^Payback:
8,000,000 km/h = ~4970969.537898672 mph which is not too shabby.

FTFW

Turns out this has all already happened.

just about the time humans were domesticating dogs.
>> ^kevingrr:

Turns out this has all already happened.

This is how super heroes/villains are born.

Whooops - that's off by a decimal place. It's 0.0074c.

>> ^jonny:

So about 0.074c. I'll be interested to see the highest velocities they measure.
>> ^Bloodscourge:
>> ^Payback:
8,000,000 km/h = ~4970969.537898672 mph which is not too shabby.

FTFW