Astronomers Watch Star Devouring Planet

A sufficiently advanced and long-lived civilization comes to realize that its sun is a liability, not an asset.

Of course reaching the end of its life and going nova or red giant is bad. But even well before that, stars are known to throw nasty flares and Carrington-type events [slashdot.org]. And go through dim/bright cycles (almost all stars are variable to some degree, including ours).

Colonizing the moon or Mars doesn't guarantee survival of the human race. The only real way to do that is to move the planet far away from the star -- a.k.a. Fleet of Worlds. This is part of the wisdom contained in the Known Space books.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/Cxn0AwmdQnk/astronomers-watch-star-devouring-planet

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