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An illustration shows a planet being disintergrated "spilling its guts" into space

Planet-eating stars hint at Earth's ultimate fate

By Matthew R. Francis published

A sampling of aging Sun-like stars demonstrates that they likely eat their closest planets.

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Illustration of a hypothesized event known as a superkilonova. A massive star explodes in a supernova (left), which generates elements like carbon and iron. In the aftermath, two neutron stars are born (middle), at least one of which is believed to be less massive than our Sun. The neutron stars spiral together, sending gravitational waves rippling through the cosmos, before merging in a dramatic kilonova (right). Kilonovae seed the universe with the heaviest elements, such as gold at platinum, which glow with red light.

Astronomers may have spotted the 1st known 'superkilonova' double star explosion

By Robert Lea published

"We do not know with certainty that we found a superkilonova, but the event nevertheless is eye-opening."

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Illustration of the collision of two planetesimals in the circumstellar disc of the star Fomalhaut.

Astronomers capture 1st direct images of collisions in a nearby star system: 'It's like looking back in time'

By Robert Lea published

"It's like looking back in time in a sense, to that violent period of our solar system when it was less than a billion years old."

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A pixelated image showing a white dot surrounding by orange and red light against a black background

Astronomers capture close-up images of nova explosions on 2 dead stars in unprecedented detail

By Keith Cooper published

The nova eruptions come about when a white dwarf steals too much matter from a close red giant companion.

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Different faces of the dying star W Hydrae seen in different molecular lines with ALMA. Shown here are 30 faces out of 57 images in total.

57 ways to capture a dying star: Astronomers get a glimpse of what will happen when our sun dies

By Robert Lea published

"With ALMA, we can now see the atmosphere of a dying star with a level of clarity in a similar way to what we do for the sun."

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Map of the local interstellar clouds just outside Earth's solar system, with blue arrows showing in what directions these clouds are moving. The yellow arrow indicates the direction of the sun's own motion.

Scientists discover cosmic 'scar' in interstellar clouds left by a close shave between our sun and 2 intruder stars

By Robert Lea published

"It’s kind of a jigsaw puzzle where all the different pieces are moving."

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A series of small purple images with golden light in the shape of various disks

Scientists capture 51 images showing exoplanets coming together around other stars: 'This data set is an astronomical treasure'

By Samantha Mathewson published

The Very Large Telescope's SPHERE instrument captured unprecedented images of 51 dusty rings shaping young planetary systems.

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An illustration of a red giant star, where it glows red with heat in space

Why is this star so weird? Maybe because it ate one of its own planets

By Paul Sutter published

Astronomers are just beginning to scratch the surface of the complex, and sometimes violent, relationships between planets and their parent stars.

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A ball of blue and white light representing a white dwarf star in the darkness of space.

Do the cores of dead stars exist forever?

By Paul Sutter published

Regular stars collapse and die once they run out of fuel for their nuclear reactions, but the white dwarfs just sit there, hanging out, for eternity.

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The red giant star π1 Gruis as seen by the Very Large Telescope

Huge red giant star has newfound companion — and it may be a bad neighbor

By Robert Lea published

"Throwing a close companion into the mix could possibly wreak further havoc on the already complicated processes surrounding these stars."

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