Yes, each faction has a super weapon they can research at tier 8. They fire at planets and you can build no more than 4 of them. They have the following effects.
TEC: Novalith Cannon - Fires a powerful nuclear warhead that inflicts 3500 damage to a planet. If it destroys the planet it will be uncolonizeable for some time, and in either case it has an extremely powerful half and hour long debuff to maximum planet population and trade. You can protect your planets from the damage with the axillary government upgrade or equivalent though.
Advent: Deliverance Engine - Easily the weakest one, but it spreads culture from the planet it hits, assuming your culture is weak enough for it to overpower it. It also give a +25% damage bonus to all allied ships at that planet, so if an hostile fleet is at where it hits they'll get a lot stronger.
Vasari: Kostura Cannon - This is what you got hit by. It can do moderate damage to all structures in a hostile gravity well, and disable them for a period of time. What probably happened is your labs got disabled, temporarily making it so you didn't have the research for Kodiaks and Orgrovs. When the effect wears off they should come back online. It also makes a phase gate at the planet it targets, allowing enemy ships to use the Vasari phase network to directly jump to your planet, making this weapon excellent for surprise attacks behind enemy lines. The AI rarely uses it this way though.
