Well, you realize that it is impossible to provide science that doesn't exist, right? The best we can do is say that these kinds of massive outbursts do occur but not in our kind of star. You'd have to have something disturbing it, or have an extremely massive star (like eta Carina) to create a "knowing" type of event.
As far as the science: Grab a scope. Look outside at the stars. See how they are almost all these nice point sources? There are a few planetary nebula and supernova remnants around, but compared to "normal" stars they are very rare.
If these events were common, we would see many more emission nebula like we see around eta Carina (which I can't see from here, but hope to see in person some day). These emission nebula are hot clouds of gas lit up by stars embedded in them. They are common in 'starburst' areas like the Orion nebula, where stars are forming, but as the stars light up, they blow the emission nebula away and apart.
So, the available evidence is that sun-like "Type G" stars (and if I recall correctly, that is about 8% of the local stars you see at night) do not have these massive outbursts. Stars that have 'outbursts' are variable stars, and they are not the nice, stable, middle-aged stars like our sun.
As far as Ian O'Neill's comment, I'd trust what he says in this area completely. He is a solar physicist. I'm just an amateur astronomer.
Mike (guest) 20 Dec 2009 04:29
