Unruly star may be swallowing embryonic planets - space - 15 November 2006 - New Scientist Space

"A rare outburst from an infant star suggests the star may be
swallowing embryonic planets.

About a dozen infant stars have been seen to suddenly brighten,
sometimes by more than a factor of 100, in events called FUors and
EXors, after the identifying letters of the stars first seen to exhibit
them. The FUors may last hundreds of years, while the EXors can be as
brief as a few months.

These outbursts are thought to be caused by a sudden increase in the
amount of matter being swallowed by the star.

One theory argues that the matter being swallowed is dust and gas from
a disc around the star. In this so-called disc instability model, the
outbursts arise when the disc becomes warmer and more viscous, causing
more gas and dust to fall into the star."

More at http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10583