2023-05-09 19:26:00
Astronomers had been able to see the moment just before, or just following, a planet was eaten by a star, but they had never been able to see the exact process. Now a group of scientists say they have captured how a star, more than 12,000 light-years away, swallows a huge planet.
Astronomers managed to record a cosmic event that they had never been able to directly observe before: the death of a planet.
The space demise occurred regarding 12,000 light-years from Earth, in the Milky Way near the constellation Aquila.
Researchers have observed stars just before or following a planet has been eaten, but they have never caught one in the act of being consumed.
Most planets are thought to meet their end when their host star runs out of power, a fate that is expected to befall Earth as well, but billions of years from now.
An artist’s recreation of the moment a star devours a planet.
death of a planet
Another artistic representation in which the planet brushes once morest the surface of the star just before being devoured.
In the new study, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology made the accidental discovery.
They first observed a star that had suddenly increased in brightness by more than 100 times over a period of 10 days.
Subsequent observations by scientists established that the vanishing planet had been a gas giant with a mass similar to that of Jupiter, which, being so close to its star, completed one orbit in just one day.
The star, which is quite similar to the Sun, swallowed the planet over a period of around 100 days, starting by nibbling at its edges, which ejected dust.
During the last ten days of the process, a bright explosion occurred as the planet was completely destroyed as it plunged into the star.
Earth is expected to suffer the same fate, but in regarding 5 billion years.
Experts suggest that Earth will meet a similar end, but not within the next 5 billion years, when the Sun is expected to burn up and consume the inner planets of the solar system.
However, experts say the event will be much “less dramatic” because rocky planets like Earth, Mercury and Venus are much smaller than the gas giants.
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