An asteroid-smashing star ground a giant rock to bits and covered itself in the remains
October 18, 2019 at 05:00 AM EDT
Somewhere in the galaxy, a white dwarf star suddenly started shining brightly. And now we understand the violent cataclysm that caused it: the star's gravitational field tore the asteroid to bits, scattering its metallic bits in a shiny halo around the star.