A star’s extreme outburst could be tormenting baby planets

An extreme eruption from a young star that resembles the sun suggests budding planets have to exist in a rather savage environment.

A team of scientists from the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) used the Submillimeter Array (SMA), an array of telescopes on Maunakea in Hawaii, to observe the young star HD 283572. The crew watched as HD 283572’s brightness increased by hundreds of times over the course of just a few hours. This observed eruption ranks as one of the most powerful stellar flares ever seen. 

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