Astronomers have discovered another “first” while staring into space, and this time the monumental event foreshadowed what may happen to Earth in roughly 5 billion years, as a star swallowed a planet whole.
The observations from astronomers were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, as the space gazers said they appeared to witness a gas giant about the size of Jupiter being eaten by its star.
They say the star had been growing for eons and finally became so big it consumed the close-orbiting planet in one bite.
While it may seem unnerving to think about our solar system’s sun possibly consuming the likes of Mercury, Venus, or even Earth one day, Morgan MacLeod, a co-author of the findings, shared that it won’t happen in this lifetime, or even the next couple thousand.
“If it’s any consolation, this will happen in about 5 billion years,” MacLeod from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shared.
NASA has confirmed this, sharing that our sun will one day experience a similar growth spurt that consumes a couple of planets in its path.
As for the star in the findings, astronomers shared that it had the planet for a snack roughly 10,000 to 15,000 years ago near the Aquila constellation when the star was 10 billion years old.
Researchers said that as the star consumed the gas giant, there was a quick burst of light, followed by a long-lasting stream of dust shining in cold infrared energy.
The findings shared that this was the first time astronomers had observed a star swallow a planet completely, while other stars have been seen taking bites out of planets before.
The discovery was made by Kishalay De, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who spotted the outburst in 2020 while reviewing scans taken by the California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory.
After reviewing the data, the team of astronomers was able to unravel the mystery, discovering that the star had itself a snack on the planet after previously thinking it had consumed a fellow star.
It’s unknown if there are other planets circulating the star, but De shared that it may be thousands of years before it has another meal. But, now that researchers are aware of what to look for, they say spotting the cosmic gulps will be much easier.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Related
Related
