KingVoyeur
04-07-2006, 08:35 AM
Some recent articles I found online all seem to show that even space objects are prone to theft and cannibalism.
'Dead star' erupts for big show
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter, in Leicester
Scientists are studying the violent outburst of a dead star as it tries to fire back into life.
The white dwarf star in the Ophiuchus constellation has exhausted its own nuclear fuel but is now stealing it from a neighbouring giant.
Every 20 years or so, it gathers sufficient material to explode with enough intensity to be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
The so-called recurrent nova event has now flared up six times in 108 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/sci_nat_enl_1144364369/img/laun.jpg
Full story @ BBCNews.com (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4885700.stm)
Pair of black holes locked in death dance
'One of the black holes invariably will eat the other'
By Robert Roy Britt
SPACE.com
(SPACE.com) -- Two supermassive black holes have been found to be spiraling toward a merger, astronomers said today.
The collision will create a single super-supermassive black hole capable of swallowing material equal to billions of stars, the researchers said.
Mergers between black holes are thought to be one way they grow. A handful of similar setups have been observed in which black holes appear inevitably on a merger course. This pair, at the center of a galaxy cluster called Abell 400, was known to be close but their fate hadn't been determined.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/TECH/space/04/06/black.holes/story.black.holes.jpg
Full story @ CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/04/06/black.holes/index.html)
'Dead star' erupts for big show
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter, in Leicester
Scientists are studying the violent outburst of a dead star as it tries to fire back into life.
The white dwarf star in the Ophiuchus constellation has exhausted its own nuclear fuel but is now stealing it from a neighbouring giant.
Every 20 years or so, it gathers sufficient material to explode with enough intensity to be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
The so-called recurrent nova event has now flared up six times in 108 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/sci_nat_enl_1144364369/img/laun.jpg
Full story @ BBCNews.com (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4885700.stm)
Pair of black holes locked in death dance
'One of the black holes invariably will eat the other'
By Robert Roy Britt
SPACE.com
(SPACE.com) -- Two supermassive black holes have been found to be spiraling toward a merger, astronomers said today.
The collision will create a single super-supermassive black hole capable of swallowing material equal to billions of stars, the researchers said.
Mergers between black holes are thought to be one way they grow. A handful of similar setups have been observed in which black holes appear inevitably on a merger course. This pair, at the center of a galaxy cluster called Abell 400, was known to be close but their fate hadn't been determined.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/TECH/space/04/06/black.holes/story.black.holes.jpg
Full story @ CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/04/06/black.holes/index.html)