Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and other research institutions describe in their publications in the journal Nature how they first observed how a star “swallows” a planet.

The Earth will suffer the same fate in five billion years, when the Sun is expected to be destroyed and burn the inner planets of our solar system.

As a star exhausts its life cycle, it expands to a million times its original size, consuming any matter – and planets – in its path. The scientists had clues, but so far they had never noticed the stars during this act.

The death of the planet appears to have taken place in our own galaxy, about 12,000 light-years away, near the constellation Aquila. Astronomers spotted an outburst of a star that became more than 100 times brighter in just ten days before quickly fading away. This white hot flash was followed by a colder and longer signal.

The scientists concluded that this combination could have been caused by only one event: a star engulfing a nearby planet.

The bright, hot glow was likely the last moment the Jupiter-sized planet was sucked into the dying star’s atmosphere. As the planet hit the star’s core, the star’s outer layers were ejected and turned into cold dust.

Source: RES-IPE