💫🔭 Move over, Galactus! We've just spotted a real-life devourer of worlds 12,000 light-years away. A star has engulfed a planet, previewing Earth's own fate in 5 billion years! 🌍💥 This stellar find might help us understand exoplanets better.
Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsFor the first time, astronomers have observed a star engulfing a planet, tearing it apart in a preview of what will happen to the Earth in about 5 billion years when the sun swells to its red giant phase. Discovery of the collision, which took place 12,000 light years away, could lead to a better understanding of the chemical makeup of exoplanets.
Kishalay De, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found the first evidence by accident, while sifting through data from the Zwicky Transient Facility, part of the Palomar Observatory in California. Every 48 hours, a camera connected to a telescope there surveys the stars, looking for those that have changed brightness during a short period of time. Normally, this is used to pinpoint supernovae, gamma ray bursts and other high-energy events.
Such molecules form in very cold stars, and their appearance here, in a hot, brightening star, puzzled De.Along with some colleagues, he reviewed more data on the outburst, from an infrared camera at Palomar, which showed the sheer volume of the cool molecules. After some consideration, they later concluded that during the initial outburst, which had lasted about 25 days, the star had engulfed a planet up to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
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