Death Star Reigns!

By Pamela Mortimer

Don’t worry – it’s not ours. A Tuesday report reveals that astronomers have witnessed a "super massive black hole" shooting a deadly ray of energy into a neighboring galaxy.

Dubbed the "Death Star Galaxy" by NASA astronomers, the black hole could annihilate the atmospheres of planets. However, the destructive power of the energy may create new stars and solar systems from the remains of the old ones. In theory, this means that the "death ray" may not be all bad news for the victimized galaxy.

Fortunately, all of this "cosmic violence" happened a safe distance from our own Milky Way.

"We've seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first time we've seen one punch into another galaxy like we're seeing here," said Dan Evans, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics located in Cambridge, MA. "This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummeling."

The attacker galaxy is the largest of two in a system known to astronomers as 3C321. The galaxy is aiming the high-energy jet from its center toward a smaller galaxy some 20,000 light-years away, which is roughly the distance from Earth to the center of the Milky Way. This particular galaxy is located about 1.4 billion light-years away from Earth.

The phenomena was discovered when a bright spot appeared in a NASA composite image. The image revealed that the death ray is consistently striking the outer perimeter of the smaller galaxy, thereby deflecting the spindle of energy into intergalactic space. Although it isn’t a direct hit, scientists believe that the consequences are frightening.

"This is a fascinating result, and we can be glad that we're seeing it from a safe distance," said Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson is an astrophysicist at NY’s American Museum of Natural History who did not contribute to the study. "Knowing how lethal the radiation from the jet could be, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near its line of fire."

The rays caused by the super massive black holes are also known as "jets". The Jets can produce tremendous radiation in the form of gamma rays, X-rays and electrons that travel close to the speed of light. Evans stated that the X-ray and gamma-ray photons would be the things that will ultimately do the most damage.

"The photons can have a really dramatic, profound effect on a planetary atmosphere," he said, "including vaporizing ozone and other gases. With the protective layers gone, life at the surface would be subject to the jet's full wrath."