Astronomers See a Star Crash Through the Planetary Disk of Another Star

What causes an otherwise unremarkable star to become over 100 times brighter? That’s a question astronomers have been pondering since 1936, when a star in Orion brightened from 16th magnitude to 8th magnitude in a single year. The star, named FU Ori, is still bright to this day. Astronomers have come up with different explanations …