SUMMARY: Astronomers with the European Southern Observatory have discovered a star which is extremely flat All rotating objects in space are flattened due to their rotation; even our Earth is 21 kilometres wider at the equator than it is pole-to-pole. But this new star, called Achernar, is 50% wider at its equator than at its poles. Obviously it's spinning quickly, but its shape doesn't fit into the current astrophysics models. It should be losing mass into space at the rate it's going. Time for some new models.
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