2007-12-18

NASA Announces Discovery of Assault by a Black Hole

Dec.
18, 2007:
A powerful jet from a supermassive black
hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new data from
NASA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence
may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and
trigger a burst of star birth in its destructive wake.

This
real-life scene, worthy of the most outlandish science fiction,
is playing out in a faraway binary galaxy system known as
3C321. Two galaxies are in orbit around one another. A supermassive
black hole at the core of the system's larger galaxy is spewing
a jet in the direction of its smaller companion.
see caption

"We've
seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first
time we've seen one punch into another galaxy," says
Dan Evans, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics and leader of the study. "This jet could
be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it
is pummeling."


see caption


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