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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.

3 of 85 comments (clear)

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

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

  2. In related news.. by ewhenn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Prevacid stock has spiked sharply up.

  3. 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.