Editorial: A cosmic event finally comes into view

We're hooked on instant information these days, with "old" measured not in minutes but seconds. But scientists are juiced to witness an event that happened 26,000 years ago. That's when a black hole -- dense, collapsed matter with gravity so strong that everything nearby is sucked in -- likely devoured a gas cloud as massive as three Earths. But because it's 26,000 light years away, it took that many years for the light to reach Earth, allowing astronomers to "see" the cosmic event beginning next month. Some things are worth waiting for.