Since they were first detected over four decades ago, unusually powerful x-ray emissions originating from the site of a dying star called the Helix Nebula have proved an enigma astronomers. Now, we may finally have an explanation for what they are — and it's pretty grisly. As reported in a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team of researchers uncovered that the emissions are the last gasp of a planet being devoured by the star, a type of stellar