The destruction of a planet may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but a team of astronomers has found evidence that this may have happened in an ancient cluster of stars at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Using several telescopes, including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers have found evidence that a white dwarf star - the dense core of a star like the Sun that has run out of nuclear fuel - may have ripped apart a planet as it came too close. Read more
NGC 6388 (also ESO 279-SC2, GC 4307 and GCl 70) is a magnitude +6.8 globular star cluster located 32,300 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.
The nebula was discovered by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop using a homemade 9-foot 22.86 cm (9 inch) f/12 speculum Newtonian reflector at Paramatta, New South Wales, Australia, on the 13th May 1826
Right Ascension 17h 36m 17.0s, Declination -44° 44' 04"