{"id":46264,"date":"2023-06-13T09:12:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T09:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=119363"},"modified":"2023-06-13T09:32:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T09:32:29","slug":"star-caught-in-the-act-of-swallowing-a-planet-whole","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/star-caught-in-the-act-of-swallowing-a-planet-whole\/","title":{"rendered":"Star caught in the act of swallowing a planet whole"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bloated star has been observed giving a dusty belch as it engulfs one of its orbiting planets <\/p>

By Ezzy Pearson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 13 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

A star has <\/span>been caught in the act of swallowing one of its planets for the first time, giving a preview of our own Solar System\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

The star, ZTF SLRN-2020, first attracted attention in May 2020 when the Zwicky Transient Facility<\/a> in California \u2013 which scans the sky nightly \u2013 detected it had brightened by over 100 times in just 10 days.<\/p>\n

Initially, astronomers thought the brightening was caused by two stars merging.<\/p>\n

However, the star remained bright in the infrared<\/a> for 100 days after the initial outburst, indicating it was surrounded by a cloud of cold material.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a star brightens it usually becomes much hotter,\u201d says Kishalay De, who first noticed the star\u2019s odd outburst while a PhD student at Caltech<\/a> and who now works at MIT<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, low temperatures and brightening stars do not go together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""A\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
A star like our Sun swelling into a red giant and engulfing its orbiting planets. Credit: Stocktrek Images\/Tomasz Dabrowski \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The energy from the outburst was also 1,000 times less than any previous stellar merger.<\/p>\n

This ruled out a second star, but instead pointed towards a gas giant planet like Jupiter, which just so happens to be around 1\/1000th the mass of the Sun.<\/p>\n

The dusty belch from the star was caused by the planet pulling gas from the stellar surface as it spiralled in, ever closer.<\/p>\n

This gas would have then cooled to form the dust seen in the follow-up observations.<\/p>\n

A similar fate awaits our own planet, though not for around five billion years.<\/p>\n

This is when the Sun will begin to run out of fuel and swell to become a red giant<\/a>, expanding to engulf Mercury, Venus and Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, we\u2019ve been able to see the before and after \u2013 before, when the planets are still orbiting very close to their star, and after, when a planet has already been engulfed, and the star is giant,\u201d says De.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we were missing was catching the star in the act, where you have a planet undergoing this fate in real time. That\u2019s what makes this discovery really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

When stars consume planets\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Words: Chris Lintott<\/em><\/p>\n

Considering scenarios for what might happen in the dramatic encounters between stars and planets has long been a favourite hobby for an ecletic band of theorists.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my favourites is the notion that if a giant planet is engulfed then its moons would be stripped away by tides, ending up as new planets in orbit around the star.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such moons would act as giant comets, producing a debris disc around the star. <\/span><\/p>\n

Such a series of events has been used to explain the dramatic dimming of Boyajian\u2019s star in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

It may be that the star ate a planet a century ago, leaving us to observe the effects of its lost moons.<\/span><\/p>\n

So stars beware: thoughtlessly consuming planets can have\u00a0 consequences. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get the full story at www.caltech.edu\/about\/news\/star-eats-planet-brightens-dramatically<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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