‘Death Star’ black holes fire planet-killing beams

(NewsNation) — Scientists have found massive black holes nicknamed “Death Stars” that fire powerful beams into space and rotate, swiveling and directing the beams in different directions.

A team of astronomers studied 16 supermassive black holes using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomical Observatory’s Very Large Baseline Array.

The data showed that the beams changed directions, sometimes by as much as nearly 90 degrees. The changes happened over a timescale of one million to a few tens of millions of years. That may seem like a long time on a human scale, but for black holes that are around 10 billion years old, it’s a relatively rapid movement.

Scientists think the powerful beams play an important role in how stars and galaxies form, as they pump energy into gas in a galaxy that prevents it from cooling down enough to form new stars. That can prevent star formation in the areas where they are pointed.

While that isn’t exactly the same as blasting an existing planet to smithereens like a “fully armed and operational” battle station, it is a sign the Death Star black holes could be eliminating planets by creating conditions where they never have a chance to form.