Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Hubble Just Saw a Star Rip Apart the 'Big Brother' of Halley's Comet

posted by on Monday February 13 2017, @09:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the having-a-ripping-good-time dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Astronomers have observed something unexpectedly vicious happening in space - for the first time, researchers saw a white dwarf star ripping apart a massive, comet-like object, and scattering its remains across its atmosphere.

The destroyed object had a very similar chemical composition to Halley's comet, but was 100,000 times more massive, leading researchers to nickname it the comet's 'big brother'. And its fate wasn't pretty.

White dwarfs are incredibly dense stars that were once similar to our Sun, but have now collapsed down into their final form - a stellar object with a mass comparable to our Sun, packed into a volume similar to Earth. This gives white dwarfs powerful tidal pull that can tear apart any objects that get too close.

And while it's not unheard of for the stars to shred rocky, asteroid-like object, this is the first time that scientists have seen it devour an object made of icy, comet-like material.

Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-just-observed-a-star-ripping-apart-halley-s-comet-s-giant-brother

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Hubble Just Saw a Star Rip Apart the 'Big Brother' of Halley's Comet | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 15 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Monday February 13 2017, @10:12PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday February 13 2017, @10:12PM (#466757) Journal

    … that's a surveillance station. Or why else would it be called "big brother"?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Funny=1, Touché=2, Total=3
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   5  

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday February 13 2017, @10:35PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday February 13 2017, @10:35PM (#466762)

    There's great irony in Big Brother being ripped apart by a dim brown entity...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2017, @10:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13 2017, @10:51PM (#466771)

      There's great irony in Big Brother being ripped apart by a dim brown entity...

      The summary says white dwarf not brown.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday February 13 2017, @11:08PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Monday February 13 2017, @11:08PM (#466776)

        I know, my brain wanted it it the other way I guess.
        Using white doesn't work as well in the current context...