For the first time, scientists have seen a star engulfing a planet. When can this happen to the Earth?
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Astronomers for the first time observed how a star devours a planet at a distance of 12 thousand light years. Scientists predict that this will happen to Earth in about 5 billion years, reports Space and researchers in the journal Nature. By analyzing countless stars at various stages of their evolution, astronomers have discovered that as the Sun and stars like it near the end of their lives, they begin to exhaust their main source of fuel, the hydrogen near their cores. This causes the cores of the stars to contract and the outer shells to expand and cool. During the red giant phase, stars can expand 100 to 1,000 times their original diameter, absorbing planets in close orbits. Read also: Why Venus and Mars are not yet suitable for human life Photo: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick/M. Zamani “We know that this must happen to all planets that orbit at distances smaller than Earth, but it has been extremely difficult to provide experimental evidence for this,” lead author of the study, MIT astrophysicist Kishalai De, told Space.com. Scientists have known that stars absorb planets before and shortly after expanding. But until recently, researchers were unable to see the star during this process. “Planetary absorption has been a fundamental prediction in our understanding of stars and planets, but how often it happens is unknown. So discovering a potentially rare event for the first time is always exciting,” said Kishalai De. We will remind you that Saturn’s rings may disappear: astronomers have predicted when this will happen. Read also: The exoplanet hunter. How during the war Ukrainian researcher Olga Zahozai discovered a planet important for science
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