Astronomers documented a star “devouring” a planet, in the first direct glimpse of a ferocious process called planetary swallowing, according to the newspaper. The New York Times.
The newspaper says that scientists have spotted the gaseous planet, which is similar – and may be larger – than Jupiter, and is being swallowed up by a sun-like star.
According to scientific theories, the same fate awaits the Earth one day.
The planet and the “predator” star are located about 12 thousand light-years from Earth.
The discovery provides “a missing link in our understanding of the evolution and eventual fates of planetary systems,” the astronomers wrote in their study, published Wednesday in Nature.
“Scientists see what Earth will be like five billion years from now,” Kechalay D, a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the study’s authors, said.
According to the scientists who spoke to the newspaper, the small stars may remain “alive” for trillions of years, while the more massive stars explode after a few million years, and turn into a class called “red giants” that expand in size hundreds of times, and consume anything approaching their borders.
The initial 10-day outburst detected by the Zwicky Observatory occurred just as a dying star swallowed a gaseous planet more than 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
And scientists say to the newspaper that such amazing events can shed light on a group of exciting mysteries, including the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe.
