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A star has been eating an orbiting planet for 85 years

18 June 2023

A distant star called FU Orionis has been shining extraordinarily bright for the last 85 years, and it may be because it is incinerating a young, nearby planet that could be fully consumed in another 300 years


Absolutely enormous asteroid belt discovered around a nearby star

8 May 2023

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to spot strange asteroid belts around the nearby star Fomalhaut, along with evidence for at least three planets


An artist's impression of a planet about to get munched by a star

We've seen a star devouring a planet for the first time

3 May 2023

In a preview of what’s to come for Earth in about 5 billion years, astronomers have spotted a sun-like star gobbling up a planet and belching out a blast of light and energy


KRB4DP This is an artist's impression of the view from the vicinity of a hypothetical terrestrial planet and moon orbiting the red dwarf star AU Microscopii. The relatively newborn 12 million year-old star is surrounded by a very dusty disk of debris from the collision of comets, asteroids, and planetissimals swirling around the young star. Though no planets have been discovered around the star, the disk is strong circumstantial evidence for planets. Not only is it dusty, but also it is warped, possibly by the pull of one or more planets. In this view the glow of starlight reflecting off the disk cre

Mysterious cold blobs may be hiding inside a distant star

10 June 2022

A small star called AU Microscopii seems to contain strange pockets of hydrogen that are more than 1500°C cooler than the rest of the star, and astronomers aren’t sure why


An artist?s impression of the white dwarf star WD1054?226 orbited by clouds of planetary debris and a major planet in the habitable zone.

First hints of a planet orbiting in a white dwarf’s habitable zone

11 February 2022

Astronomers have found 65 evenly spaced rocks orbiting a white dwarf star in its habitable zone, hinting that a planet’s gravity may be holding them there


AArtist's impression of a planet near three stars

Exoplanet in a triple star system may orbit all three at once

28 September 2021

Astronomers have spotted hints of a planet that orbits a distant system of three stars – if confirmed, it will be the first time such a world has been found


An Exoplanet In Orbit Around A Binary Star System

Planet-eating stars can be identified by their telltale chemistry

13 September 2021

Stars that have eaten their planets aren't promising places to look for alien life, and now there is a technique that can help quickly identify such stars from their chemistry


Star map

Cosmic census reveals 540 stars and planets in our neighbourhood

7 May 2021

A cosmic census of the currently known objects in the vicinity of our sun has revealed that there are 540 stars and planets in the immediate neighbourhood


sun

Sun-like stars spotted ejecting huge bursts of matter into space

22 April 2021

Several sun-like stars have been observed ejecting huge bursts of particles into space, which might help us decide whether their orbiting planets are potentially habitable or not


An Earth-like planet might orbit our closest single sun-like star

An Earth-like planet might orbit our closest single sun-like star

14 January 2021

Tau Ceti is a star just 12 light years away – and it could host a planet called PXP-4 that sits as close to the star as Earth does to our sun with its year about as long as ours


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