The supermassive black hole in the core of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 shoots out a blazing bright jet of plasma racing across space at nearly the speed of light. It makes the "Death Star" beam in the Star Wars trilogy look like a wimpy candle flame lighter.

Hubble astronomers have found that it seems to be dangerous just getting near to the energetic plasma jet. Stars seem to explode more frequently in the vicinity of the jet's 3,000-light-year long trajectory. The stars, called novae, erupt in double-star systems where an aging, swelled-up, normal star spills hydrogen onto a burned-out white dwarf companion star. As the hydrogen accumulates on the surface of the dwarf, it reaches a tipping point where it explodes like a hydrogen bomb. Novae frequently pop off throughout the giant galaxy of 1 trillion stars, but those near the jet seem to explode more frequently.

Astronomers guessed that something about the jet is either enhancing the fueling process and rate of explosions, or birthing new nova binaries in its vicinity. But once astronomers "crunched the numbers," both hypotheses failed. So it remains anybody's guess why black hole jets enhance the rate of nova eruptions.