[DeepDuh]

By inactive I meant that it's not swallowing anything currently, but I guess if it has attracted a gas cloud this is simply not true. Must be quite a sight. Imagine there's a civilization on one of the central stars (if that's even possible considering the bursts of radiation they must get there) - I wonder what the night sky would look like.

[privong]

The activity level (in terms of how much material is falling into it) is fairly low, such that it doesn't qualify as being an "active galactic nucleus". However, a gas cloud (called "G2") will be passing close enough to the supermassive black hole that it will be tidally disrupted and part of the cloud will fall into the black hole. This will give us a chance to see enhanced accretion, though still not of the level for it to be considered "active".