[NYer]

This new ultraviolet mosaic image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft, released August 15, 2007, shows a speeding star that is leaving an enormous trail of "seeds" for new solar systems. REUTERS/ NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout.

[bamahead]

ping

[Humble Servant]

It’s Bush’s fault.

[JRios1968]

Rove, you magnificent bastard...

[SittinYonder]

"There's a star with a tail in the tail of the whale," said one of the researchers, astronomer Mark Seibert

Mark Seibert has little kids, and at night when he puts them to bed he reads them Dr. Seuss books.

[jeddavis]

Pretty much everything you’re seeing in this picture and others like it are plasma physics phenomena. Gravity has little if anything to do with it.

[VeritatisSplendor]

This makes no sense physically unless Mira is moving through a thick dust cloud which is slowing down the ejecta. Otherwise there is no way the ejected material wouldn't continue moving through space at the same velocity as the original star (plus a radial component, so Mira would have a spherical nebula around it instead of a "tail").

The only reason comets show a "tail" is that there is a solar wind pushing stuff off of them in a particular direction, there is no analogy in this case.

[dragonblustar]

"seeds" for new solar systems.

Wouldn't it be more like floating debris? There isn't enough new material to form a star that would control a new solar system.

[Dick Vomer]

Rocketing through our Milky Way galaxy at 80 miles per second (130 km per second) -- literally faster than a speeding bullet -- the star is spewing material that scientists believe may be recycled into new stars, planets and maybe even life.

yeah..... "life" is trailing behind a star, in open space, cause doncha know that we've seen all kinds of that before. I've got no problem with somebody spewing stupid cr@p, but a least define what the cr#p is.... what do they mean "life".

I think the whole trend to finding "life" in or on another planet by some "academics" is to basically show all the Christians that "see, we're not that special. There is no "one God".

I feel sorry for them in a way. To not see the vastness of the cosmos and come away with a sense that for some reason in this churning cauldron we are here and are "special".

Just our existence in this solar system is amazing...The further along in college and post graduate education the more I became convinced of the fact that we are unique....because it makes no sense for us to exist by randomness.

[GulfBreeze]

Considering this came from reuters has anyone checked:
a) If the comet phot was altered or retouched
b) If any of the facts were exagerated (Maybe the tail is only a couple of light years long.)

I’m just sayin’....

[wastedyears]

Space ping

[Doc Savage]

Whale of a tale I’ll tell you lad,.....

[Squeako]

"There's a star with a tail in the tail of the whale..."

There's a hole in the bottom of the sea.

[mtbopfuyn]

Scientists think Mira in time will eject all its gas, leaving a colorful shell known as a planetary nebula that also gradually will fade leaving behind a white dwarf.

That's nothing compared to Mr. M after a bowl of chili.

[Conan the Librarian]

You have to watch that Berthold Radiation coming from Omicron Ceti 3.

(Star Trek Reference...Mira is Omicron Ceti)

[shekkian]

Astronomers believe our sun will become a similar red giant in 4 to 5 billion years,

Damned SUVs!!!

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Wow, possible planting of new stars. I will fire up the cosmic John Deere cultivator as soon as I get the flux capacitor fixed!

[American_Centurion]

They are wrong!

It's the necromonger armada!

[Kevmo]

Thanks for posting this. B4L8r

[Drumbo]

350 light-years from Earth ... means we are looking back in time to see it. It already happened, so is it really "breaking news"? I'm just sayin' ...

[VaBthang4]

DAMN BUSH TAX CUTS!! Even stars light years away are falling apart!