Star swallows planet in first glimpse of Earth’s likely end
- Old distant star swallowed Jupiter-like planet, then expelled some material into space in an energetic belch
- Mercury, Venus and Earth, our solar system’s three innermost planets, will meet this fate in about 5 billion years
Scientists said that they have observed a dying star swallowing a planet for the first time, offering a preview of Earth’s expected fate in around five billion years.
But when the sun finally does engulf Earth, it will cause only a “tiny perturbation” compared to this cosmic explosion, the US astronomers said.
Most planets are believed to meet their end when their host star runs out of energy, turning into a red giant that massively expands, devouring anything unlucky enough to be in its path.
Astronomers had previously seen the before-and-after effects of this process, but had never before caught a planet in the act of being consumed.
Kishalay De, a postdoc researcher at MIT in the United States and the lead author of the new study, said the accidental discovery unfolded like a “detective story”.
“It all started about three years ago when I was looking at data from the Zwicky Transient Facility survey, which takes images of the sky every night,” De told an online press conference.