Galaxy Zapping Neighbor With Deathly Beam

The fact that the hot spot beyond the smaller galaxy is still lit up means it's still getting zapped with material that was sent flying before the smaller galaxy moved into the way and interrupted the beam.

Since it takes about a million years for light-speed particles to traverse the distance to the hot spots, the still lit-up hot spot means the smaller galaxy has been feeling the heat for less than a million years, Hardcastle explained.

Interestingly, both galaxies are part of system called 3C321 that was identified as a source of radio emissions and catalogued decades ago, said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of the American Museum of Natural History.

Only now by combining the images of radio telescopes, the optical and ultraviolet eyes of Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, can researchers put together the entire violent story about this intergalactic mugging.

The coordinated use of such an array of diverse and powerful telescopes is one of the unheralded triumphs of modern physics, Tyson said. "This is an example of the triumph of that exercise."

Related Links:

Larry O'Hanlon's blog: Earth Impacts

The Hubble Space Telescope

Chandra X-ray Observatory

How Stuff Works: Black Holes