Straight out of 'Star Wars,' NASA discovers a real 'death star' ripping a planet apart

In an event that sounds more like an episode of 'Star Wars' than one of reality, scientists have discovered evidence of a death star literally ripping a planet apart with its gravity.

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This unbelievable discovery validates the theory that white dwarf stars are capable of "cannibalizing possible remnant planets that have survived within its solar system."

%shareLinks-quote="We are for the first time witnessing a miniature 'planet' ripped apart by intense gravity, being vaporized by starlight and raining rocky material onto its star." type="quote" author="Andrew Vanderburg" authordesc="NASA" isquoteoftheday="false"%

What exactly is a white dwarf star, you ask? NASA explains, "As stars like our sun age, they puff up into red giants and then gradually lose about half their mass, shrinking down to 1/100th of their original size to roughly the size of Earth. This dead, dense star remnant is called a white dwarf."

As this is the first time scientists have ever seen this "catastrophic destruction" in action, it's a pretty monumental moment for astronomers!

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