Astronomers observe star swallowing planet for first time – and it’s the size of Jupiter

[onthedarkside]

 

In a world first, scientists have observed the moment that a dying star consumed a planet — a fate that eventually awaits Earth.

 

While astronomers have previously seen planets just before and just after being engulfed by a star, this is the first time that a planetary demise has been observed, according to a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology.

 

“The fact that the solar system planets would get engulfed into the sun in the future was something I had read first in high school, so it was surreal to realize that we may have found the first ever example of catching a similar event in real time!” study lead author Kishalay De, a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told CNN.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/03/world/star-swallows-planet-study-scli-intl-scn/index.html