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First-known 'pinwheel' star system is beautiful, dangerous and doomed

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

Updated 1600 GMT (0000 HKT) November 19, 2018

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This is an artist's illustration of gas and dust disk around the star HD 163296. Gaps in the disk are likely the location of baby planets that are forming.
Photos: Wonders of the universe
This is an artist's illustration of gas and dust disk around the star HD 163296. Gaps in the disk are likely the location of baby planets that are forming.
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This is a two-color composite image of comet 2I/Borisov captured by the Gemini North telescope on September 10.
Photos: Wonders of the universe
This is a two-color composite image of comet 2I/Borisov captured by the Gemini North telescope on September 10.
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This illustration shows a young, forming planet in a "baby-proof" star system.
Photos: Wonders of the universe
This illustration shows a young, forming planet in a "baby-proof" star system.
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Using a simulation, astronomers shed light on the faint gaseous filaments that comprise the cosmic web in a massive galaxy cluster.
Photos: Wonders of the universe
Using a simulation, astronomers shed light on the faint gaseous filaments that comprise the cosmic web in a massive galaxy cluster.
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The Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera observed Saturn in June as the planet made its closest approach to Earth this year, at approximately 1.36 billion kilometers away.
Photos: Wonders of the universe
The Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera observed Saturn in June as the planet made its closest approach to Earth this year, at approximately 1.36 billion kilometers away.
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An artist's impression of the massive bursts of ionizing radiation exploding from the center of the Milky Way and impacting the Magellanic Stream.
Photos: Wonders of the universe
An artist's impression of the massive bursts of ionizing radiation exploding from the center of the Milky Way and impacting the Magellanic Stream.
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The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array captured this unprecedented image of two circumstellar disks, in which baby stars are growing, feeding off material from their surrounding birth disk.
Photos: Wonders of the universe
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array captured this unprecedented image of two circumstellar disks, in which baby stars are growing, feeding off material from their surrounding birth disk.
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