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by Resident OmniNerd wyldeling's race to build a death ray was recently lost to Mother Nature. Using a variety of telescopes, astronomers have trained their recent attention on Galaxy 3C321, affectionately dubbed the "Death Star Galaxy." 3C321's core contains a super massive black hole from which a stream of x and gamma ray energy are emanating. What sets this situation apart from other radiation streams is the energy beam is focused onto the center of another galaxy and is actively destroying it. Thus, whereas Wyldeling sought only a "world dominating Death Ray," Mother Nature upped the ante with a galaxy destroying Death Star.
"The photons can have a really dramatic, profound effect on a planetary atmosphere," astronomers remarked. "You would basically render extinct all surface forms of life." Despite its destructive powers, scientists believe the energy particles may be stirring the mixing pot necessary for creating new stars and planets from the interstellar residue.
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Mega Disaster episode on the History Channel by wyldeling :: NR6 :: on 19 December 2007
On a History Channel Mega Disasters episode (sorry, no link on their site), they detailed what would happen to the earth if we got hit with a Gamma Ray burst. The predicted results were quite gruesome with the ozone layer being stripped off and a thick layer of smog being created giving the sky a sickly greenish color. University of Kansas believe the Earth was hit with one of these before, approx. 450 million years ago, which they think caused the mass extinction at the end of the Ordovician Period (much earlier than the dinosaur extinction). So, while the "death ray" here is a continuous stream, just imagine what it is doing to the life on any of the planets its hitting.