--- title: "Behold the “Quasar Tsunami,” Which Can Kill an Entire Galaxy" description: "Quasar Tsunami New data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope details what may be the most powerful phenomena in the universe: the “quasar tsunami,” a cosmic storm of such terrifying proportions that it can tear apart an entire galaxy. “No other phenomena carries more mechanical energy,” said principal investigator Nahum Arav of Virginia Tech in a […]" date: "2020-03-25" modified: "2020-03-25" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/behold-quasar-tsunami-kill-entire-galaxy" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "Black holes" - "galaxies" - "quasars" - "the digest" --- # Behold the “Quasar Tsunami,” Which Can Kill an Entire Galaxy ![New data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope details the "quasar tsunami," a cosmic storm of such terrifying size that it can tear apart an entire galaxy.]() *\Image: NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted\* ## Quasar Tsunami New data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope details what may be the most powerful phenomena in the universe: the "quasar tsunami," a cosmic storm of such terrifying proportions that it can tear apart an entire galaxy. "No other phenomena carries more mechanical energy," said principal investigator Nahum Arav of Virginia Tech in [a statement](). "The winds are pushing hundreds of solar masses of material each year. The amount of mechanical energy that these outflows carry is up to several hundreds of times higher than the luminosity of the entire Milky Way galaxy." ## Black Hole Death Arav and colleagues described the devastating phenomena in a [series of six papers]() published in *The Astrophysical Journal Supplements*. Basically, a quasar is a type of supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy that spits out extraordinary amounts of energy. In a quasar tsunami, though, the phenomenon spins out of control, heating stellar material to billions of degrees — that's billion with a "b" — and flinging it into interstellar space. ## End Stage The researchers believe the quasar tsunamis could explain a longstanding cosmological conundrum: why there are so few truly enormous galaxies in the universe. Once a galaxy reaches a certain size, the theory goes, its central black hole goes postal in a quasar tsunami — and the rest, as they say, is history. **READ MORE:** [Quasar Tsunamis Rip Across Galaxies]() \[Keck Observatory\] **More on quasars:** *[Meet One of the Most Powerful Quasars in the Known Universe]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()