Enlarge / The Milky Way's central black hole is in a very crowded neighborhood. (credit: UMass/D.Wang/NASA/STScI) Supermassive black holes are ravenous. Clumps of dust and gas are prone to being disrupted by the turbulence and radiation when they are pulled too close. So why are some of them orbiting on the edge of the Milky Way’s own supermassive monster, Sgr A*?