To stare into the void of a black hole, to tumble through space before disappearing forever within it, it's the prospect of catching that unique moment that explains the excitement of this year's events. What happens to matter once it's been swallowed we will never know.

But it's what a black hole does as it feeds that holds the true surprise. It would prove to be key to revealing what black holes really are and their hidden role at the heart of galaxies.

That picture that matter gets sucked into a black hole, that's one of the biggest confusions about black holes that's out there partially because of science fiction like Star Trek and things like that. So for matter that's far away from a black hole, it actually doesn't get sucked in. It's very much like the planets in the solar system going around the sun. Things just go around and around and around.