Star Caught Swallowing a Planet

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https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/star-caught-swallowing-a-planet/

By Camille M. Carlisle, Sky & Telescope. 

Excerpt: For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a star eat an exoplanet. The dinner bell has struck for a star in the constellation Aquila, the Eagle. Reporting in the May 4th Nature, Kishalay De (MIT) and a team of astronomers watched the star belch and brighten in a way that suggests it swallowed a closely orbiting planet. The star in question is a nondescript Sun-like star about 12,000 light-years away. Pre-outburst observations indicate it was slightly bloated, perhaps twice as wide as the Sun, and entering its golden years. This time in a star’s life can be a dangerous one for planets. As the star finishes fusing the hydrogen in its core, it brightens and swells. Eventually, it can swell enough to engulf the closest worlds, destroying them in a fiery furnace..... See also Science article A dying star consumes a planet, foreshadowing Earth’s fate[https://www.science.org/content/article/dying-star-consumes-planet-foreshadowing-earth-s-fate] and The New York Times article, It’s the End of a World as We Know It. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/science/star-eating-planet.html]

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