2023-05-04 19:32:35
Par Martin Leduc
Published on
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A star was caught in the act of gluttony.
So to speak, of course, a star is not “hungry”. But the facts are there: 12,000 light-years from our galaxy, ZTF SLRN-2020, a dying star, was seen absorbing a so-called “gas giant” planet the size of Jupiter (69,911 km from radius, the Earth being 10 times less).
This is, in essence, what a study published this Wednesday, May 3, 2023.
Impressive pictures
“No one had seen direct evidence of such a remarkable scenario until now,” writes the Caltechthe California Institute of Technology, which published an explanatory video on the phenomenon.
“We knew it, it happens several times a year. But there, we have proof of it, ”abounds Gilles Dawidowciz, vice-president of the Astronomical Society of France, contacted by actu.fr.
The video does not directly show the images of the “tasting”, but tries, by means of synthesis, to illustrate it. And it is very impressive.
We therefore see the gaseous planet spinning around the star before finally engulfing itself inside.
Simple orbit effect
“In fact, it’s a simple effect of orbit”, analyzes Gilles Dawidowicz. “The star has begun its end-of-life process, it has become a ‘red giant’. This has the effect of making her fat. In addition, its attraction effect increases. All these combined phenomena increase, to put it simply, the gravitational effect of the star. »
Which leads, inevitably, to a kind of collision between the two stars. But at the temperature at which it takes place, it’s more of an absorption: “All of the planet’s matter has disappeared in the star. It has been digested”, illustrates Gilles Dawidowicz.
It’s a bit like the Earth with the Sun. We are in the orbit of our star, and we go around it in 365 Earth days. Hypothetically, if the sun had a greater force of attraction, we might go around much faster, and ultimately suffer the same fate.
“This is what will happen to Mercury and Venus in 5 billion years from now, when our Sun will have started its own death process”, relates the vice-president of the SAF.
Could this phenomenon affect the Earth?
The Earth, for its part, should not be absorbed by the sun, because it is too far away, but risks being completely roasted by the heat that it will then emit.
And yet, the Sun is “a very small point in space. It is, for example, 90 times smaller than the red giant Aldebaran, which is by no means the largest known star. Just as our planet is a small planet, our Sun, even if it seems immensely large to us, is a small star. It’s not human, it’s stellar,” marvels the vice-president.
Something to make you dizzy a bit.
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