In an event never-seen before, NASA astronomers witnessed how a powerful jet from a super massive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy.

According to NASA, this cosmic phenomenon was observed in a system known as 3C321, which contains two galaxies in orbit around each other. The system is 1.4 billion light years away and each galaxy is formed around massive black hole.

The scientists said that the larger galaxy has a jet emanating from the vicinity of its black hole. The smaller galaxy apparently has swung into the path of this jet.

The 3C321 system was discovered through the combined effort of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope. The Very Large Array telescope, Socorro, N.M., and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) telescopes in the United Kingdom also were needed for the finding.

According to the scientist, jets from super massive black holes produce high amounts of high-energy X-rays and gamma-rays and their combined effects could severely damage the atmospheres of planets lying in the path of the jet.

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.

As Dan Evans, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the study, this phenomenon is unique because it’s the first time when such a collision can be observed.

"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," said Dan Evans. "This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummeling."

According to the images obtained by the scientists, the effect of the jet on the smaller galaxy will be substantial, as the two galaxies are at a distance of only about 20,000 light years. Also, the features in the Very Large Array and Chandra images indicate that the jet began impacting the galaxy about one million years ago, a small fraction of the system's lifetime.

For the scientists, the possibility to study such a phenomeon can be used to better understand the basic properties of the jet.

"We see jets all over the universe, but we're still struggling to understand some of their basic properties," said co-investigator Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. "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."  

But, as the astronomers said, this “galactic violence” could have some benefits after all. The massive influx of energy from the jet could induce the formation of large numbers of stars and planets after its initial wake of destruction is complete, the astronomers explained.

Photo Credit: Nasa/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al/STScI/NSF/VLA/STFC/JBO/MERLIN