Spiral galaxies like our Milky Way (a barred spiral galaxy) are nothing special--in fact, they're the most common type of galaxy. But astronomers are buzzing about the recent discovery of a very unusual spiral galaxy that sports big jets of subatomic particles that stream outward at nearly the speed of light.

Known formally as J1649+2635, the galaxy is located about 800 million light-years from Earth and is only the fourth spiral galaxy with jets (or lobes) ever observed, according to a written statement issued by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

"The conventional wisdom is that such jets come only from elliptical galaxies that formed through the merger of spirals," Dr. Minnie Mao, a postdoctoral fellow working for NRAO in Socorro, NM, said in the statement. "We don't know how spirals can have these large jets."