Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Planet-Gobbling Star

Posted by timothy on from the this-is-my-theory dept.

crymeph0 writes "BBC is carrying a story about a star that mysteriously brightened three times last year. Scientists now know why. It's been eating gas-giant planets that orbit it! I'm just glad Earth isn't a tasty gas planet, or else we'd have to start making sacrifices to Sol to play it safe." It's hard to prove things from 20,000 light years away, but this explanation is interesting.

11 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Right then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    so it's just a case if indigestion, then?

  2. uh-oh by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Funny

    Somebody call Commodore Decker and Captain Kirk!

  3. Zen of the Day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    ZOTD:

    Is the star brighter, or is everything else just darker?

  4. Planet-Gobbling Star by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Orson Wells?

  5. It's Unicron!! by the+Man+in+Black · · Score: 1, Funny

    *cue cool music*

    Unicron: For a time, I considered sparing your wretched little planet, Cybertron! But now, you shall witness... its DISMEMBERMENT!

    --
    El riesgo vive siempre!
  6. In related news.. by ewhenn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Prevacid stock has spiked sharply up.

  7. Prilosec by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny


    Prilosec went over-the-counter Monday...

  8. Carnie Wilson by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Funny

    I saw the headline and figured "Oh no! Carnie Wilson is off her diet again!"

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  9. Time for a Mars bar, yum! by G4from128k · · Score: 4, Funny

    OK, its more a Jupiter bar -- a chewy metallic hydrogen center covered in rich fluffy methane-ammonia clouds. What every growing star needs for a burst of energy.

    How many orbits does it take to get to the center of a gas-giant lollipop?

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  10. Good Joke by gnovos · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just know there is a good joke in there *somewhere* with gas-guzzling, solar power, and SUVs... I just can't get my mind around it yet...

    --
    "Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
  11. Maybe... by mraymer · · Score: 2, Funny
    The increase in the brightness of V838 Monocerotis is due to some interstellar war!

    Kick ass. Now that's why we need a space program!

    --

    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking