Scientists were able to see for the first time in the history of observations how a star swallowed up a planet that was nearby
What is known
Stars like our Sun, sooner or latergoing through the red giant stage. At this stage, they increase by several orders of magnitude and consume the planets that revolve around them. Previously, scientists knew about this through calculations, but recently they managed to see this process in reality.
The absorption occurred 12,000 light years fromof our planet. The burst of radiation was recorded three years ago and was named ZTF SLRN-2020. It took the star one week to increase its brightness 100 times.
The NEOWISE telescope showed that the energy release was1000 times less than in the collision of two stars. This means that the star absorbed a body that was 1000 times smaller than any of the stars that experts observed merging.
Based on the information received, the astronomers decided,that the star swallowed the planet. As a result of absorption, hydrogen was released with a mass of 33 Earth masses. The star turned out to be about 0.8-1.5 times more massive than the Sun, and the planet was 1-10 times more massive than Jupiter.
Mercury, Venus and our planet are expected to experience the same, as The sun will become a red giant. But this will happen only after 5 billion years.