'Death Star Galaxy' Blasts Neighbouring Galaxy with a Jet of Energy

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Astronomers say that the cosmic chaos could be causing havoc, such as destroying the atmospheres of planets in it's wake, but could also trigger the birth of new stars.

Dan Evans, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts said "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."

Artists Rendering of the 'Death Star Galaxy' blasting it's neighbour - NASA/CXC/M. Weiss image:36021:1::0

Cosmic jets emitted by black holes may offer clues to help scientists determine how energy was transferred during the formative stages of the universe. Evans told National Geographic "The origin, propagation, and energy dissipation of jets are among the most important unsolved problems in modern astrophysics"

Jets from super massive black holes produce high amounts of radiation, especially high-energy X-rays and gamma-rays, which can be lethal in large quantities. The combined effects of this radiation and particles traveling at almost the speed of light could severely damage the atmospheres of planets lying in the path of the jet. For example, protective layers of ozone in the upper atmosphere of planets could be destroyed.

Jets produced by super massive black holes transport enormous amounts of energy far from black holes and enable them to affect matter on scales vastly larger than the size of the black hole. Learning more about jets is a key goal for astrophysical research.

The proximity of the two galaxies could have profound effects and offer never before observed data for scientists to study.

Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire, was described the possibilities on the NASA website. "We see jets all over the universe, but we're still struggling to understand some of their basic properties...This system of 3C321 gives us a chance to learn how they're affected when they slam into something like a galaxy and what they do after that."

The action is taking place about 1.4 billion light-years from Earth, the larger of the two galaxies, officially known as 3C321 is blasting it's smaller neighbour from nearly 20,000 light years away with the jet of energy, nearly as large as the Milky Way galaxy.

NASA's describes the formation of the two galaxies, as being in orbit around each other. The view from the Chandra X-ray Observatory shows that both of them have super massive black holes at their centers.

Though the powerful radiation is leaving a trail of destruction as it blasts the smaller galaxy with its destructive wave, life goes on. The effect could induce the formation of large numbers of stars and planets, which scientists could observe for many years to come.