[bkepley]

--the Milky Way galaxy in which our solar system resides has a dormant super-massive black hole at its center.--

What the heck is a "dormant" black hole. It either is or isn't a black hole I would think and once it's a black hole it stays a black hole.

[Pox]

By dormant they mean that the Black Hole is not currently 'eating' anything substantial enough to emit the x-ray's and other radiation that we see when matter is being actively consumed by the black hole.

[Tenacious 1]

[What the heck is a "dormant" black hole. It either is or isn't a black hole I would think and once it's a black hole it stays a black hole.]

I thought the same thing. I am trying to picture a dormant tornado or hurricane. How does this work?

[fish hawk]

A dormant black hole is one that is in between meals.

[Nathan Zachary]

"What the heck is a "dormant" black hole. It either is or isn't a black hole I would think and once it's a black hole it stays a black hole."

It's scientific 'gobbledygook' for "We can't see this unseen imaginary black hole doing anything, so this unseen imaginary thing must be asleep somehow. We need more money to investigate this further, and more chalk to write impressive looking calculus on the blackboard."