The potential planet-forming disk (or "protoplanetary disk") of a sun-like star is being violently ripped away by the powerful winds of a nearby hot O-type star in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. At up to 100 times the mass of sun-like stars, O stars are the most massive and energetic stars in the universe.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Z. Balog (Univ. of Ariz./Univ. of Szeged)
01/14/09
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Z. Balog (Univ. of Ariz./Univ. of Szeged)
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