Infant Super-Jupiter Devoured by Star, Creating Fiery Disc and Solving Solar Flare Mystery
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 and burned up in a superheated soup of material swirling around the star. Some of the remains of the planet were then fed to the star, causing it to significantly increase in brightness. The simulation created by a team at the University of Leicester suggests that most developing planetary systems may flare up in a similar way dozens of times or more while their protoplanetary disk is still present.