Astronomers have long suspected the super-massive black hole, which is thought to be more than 2 million times more massive than our sun. It sits at the center of the Milky Way, some 27,000 light-years from Earth. A point-like source of radio emission called Sagittarius A* (pronounced "A-star") marks the location of this suspected black hole. (A light-year is 5.88 trillion miles.)

The black hole is surrounded by a ring of dust and gas orbiting Sagittarius A* at a radius of about 6.5 light-years. This "circum-nuclear disk," as researchers call it, revolves around the black hole at 246,000 m.p.h. (110 kilometers per hour). Gas and dust, stripped from the disk by the strong gravitational pull of the black hole, spiral toward Sagittarius A*.

McGary and Ho found ammonia molecules in the region around the disk. By tracing emissions from the ammonia, the researchers monitored the movement of the dense, hot gas known to exist near the center of the galaxy.

Narrow "streamers" of ammonia emission were observed connecting giant clouds of molecular gas to the circum-nuclear disk. These clouds are located from 25 to 50 light-years from the center of the galaxy.

The detection of these streamers may answer many of the questions about the formation of the circum-nuclear disk and the interactions that take place at the center of the Milky Way, researchers said.

The findings, made using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope at Socorro, New Mexico, were presented last week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.