One more thing to worry about

While we are all recovering from the news of the terrible fate that awaits us as outlined recently in Bali, astronomers have, for the first time, witnessed a super-massive black hole hitting a nearby galaxy with a “death-star-like” beam of energy.

The story also has a video with simulations, pictures, and explanations. “The ‘death star galaxy,’ as NASA astronomers called it, could obliterate the atmospheres of planets but also trigger the birth of stars in the wake of its destructive beam. Fortunately, the cosmic violence is a safe distance from our own neck of the cosmos.”

The deadly galaxy — the largest of two in a system known as 3C321 — is aiming the high-energy jet from its center at a smaller galaxy 20,000 light-years away from it, or roughly the distance from Earth to the Milky Way’s core. Both galaxies are situated about 1.4 billion light-years away from Earth. An artist’s conception is below:

A bright spot in a NASA composite image at the top of the article reveals that the beam is striking the edge of the smaller galaxy, deflecting the spindle of energy into intergalactic space. While not a direct hit, astronomers said the consequences are frightening.

But as they say, stuff happens, entropy occurs. And, it’s a reminder that we are nothing more than a fly speck on an elephants butt in the whole grand scheme of space, time, and energy.