'Cannibal Star' Eats Neighbor

Hungry BP Piscium caught in the act
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 17, 2010 2:21 AM CDT
'Cannibal Star' Eats Neighbor
NASA's X-ray and optical data for BP Piscium, a "cannibal" star 1,000 light years away.   (NASA)

A "cannibal" star in the Pisces constellation appears to have gobbled up its neighbor and belched out a disc of dusty matter. X-Ray images revealed the remains of either a young star or a large planet inside BP Piscium, which has recently entered the expanding "red giant" phase of its evolution, the Telegraph reports.

“It appears that BP Piscium represents a star-eat-star universe, or maybe a star-eat-planet one,” one astronomer explained. The researchers say they've never caught a star in the act of consuming a neighbor before, although they believe our own planet may end up as a meal for the sun a few billion years from now. If you need more on stars of the astronomical variety, click here.
(Read more planet stories.)

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