"Explaining the Trillion Times Brighter Flare: A Star Devours a Super-Jupiter"

A massive stellar flare from the infant protostar FU Ori, located 1,200 light-years from Earth, may have been caused when a planet ten times the size of Jupiter ventured too close to the growing star, resulting in an "extreme evaporation" and burning up in a superheated soup of material swirling around the star. Some of the remains of the planet were then fed to the star. The simulation created by a team at the University of Leicester suggested that most developing planetary systems may flare up in a similar way dozens of times or more while their protoplanetary disk is still present.