Galaxy fires powerful particle beam

This animation begins with a close-up of the supermassive black hole in the centre of the galaxy 3C321. Hot gas falls towards the black hole; some is swallowed but much is ejected in a particle beam. As the camera pans out, the companion galaxy becomes visible as it swings into the path of the jet, which is deflected in the process (Courtesy of NASA/STScI/G Bacon)

You wouldn't want to be in the path of this space nasty:

A jet of hot gas and high-energy particles is shooting out from the core of a galaxy called 3C321 and hitting a neighbou

...Any Earth-like planets that may lie in the path of this beam might be sterilised. If such a jet were aimed at Earth, it would blast the upper atmosphere with gamma radiation. That would destroy the ozone layer in months to years, says Evans, leaving earthlings exposed to carcinogenic ultraviolet rays from the Sun.

More at New Scientist