Jet From Black Hole Blasts Neighboring Galaxy

An anonymous reader writes: A jet of highly charged radiation from a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy is blasting another galaxy nearby — an act of galactic violence that astronomers said yesterday they have never seen before. "What we've identified is an act of violence by a black hole, with an unfortunate nearby galaxy in the line of fire," said Dan Evans, the study leader at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge. He said any planets orbiting the stars of the smaller galaxy would be dramatically affected, and any life forms would likely die as the jet's radiation transformed the planets' atmosphere.