Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGMaIx0ExqI
The scientists essentially did what most CMDRs do when they first visit a Guardian ruin.
A pillar with a crystal rises up out of the ground; and we pew-pew the crystal off it's socket.
Then we look at it, pick it up, but realize it's useless vendor trash and stop picking them up from that point on.
These scientists, however, knew better - probably because they have a few Masters and maybe a Doctorate in Nasty Stuff.
These "Guardian Relic" crystals -- they are apparently multiple-use devices that can emit staggering amounts of gamma and neutron radiation several orders of magnitude more then the Demon Core of the 1940s.
The nearby Guardian Site has several crashed Thargoid vessels, some almost 15km away from it, so apparently the "Guardian Relics" are super-effective!
And thanks to hundreds if not thousands of CMDRs visit the site, scanning the logs, and cashing in the "abandoned settlement intel package", the entire Bubble now knows about it.
If you thought souped-up Enzyme bombings that the NMLA does were overpowered, wait until they haul one of those glowing Guardian Relics into a Station and hook it up. It'll cook everyone on that Station, no worries.