>black hole at a distance of around 40bn km, or 36 light-hours
or X clippo lighters?
Star-gazing boffins using the European Southern Observatory's aptly-named Very Large Telescope have discovered that supermassive black hole Sagittarius A is about to chow down on a huge gas cloud. Simulation of gas cloud after close approach to the black hole Simulation of gas cloud after close approach to the black hole. …
At a normal black hole, yes you'll become al dente capellini in before you even cross the event horizon because the tidal force is too strong.
At a supermassive black hole, you'll probably survive crossing the horizon. If its massive enough, you might even hit the surface of the singularity.
You'll still die well before that, as any radiation pulled in with you will have its energy boosted due to the massive gravity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification
The interesting question is...what if the singularity is spinning fast enough that its shape is not spherical but ring-like? If we could set aside the radiation, would it be possible for an object to pass through the center? *Cue twilight zone music*
I don't claim to be an expert with this stuff (Prof Hawking won't move over....), but I read someplace that on the event horizon time stops. So that cloud might have a while to go before it no longer exists.
My theory is that the universe is an everlasting black hole, where we are sitting on the edge of an event horizon where time has stopped. However I haven't been able to secure funding for providing my theory of everything so I will stick to my other theory involving Paris and black holes.