With a Gulp and Burp, a Bloated Star Swallows a Jupiter-Sized Planet

This illustration provided Caltech/IPAC by depicts a planet skimming the surface of its star. (Caltech/IPAC via AP)
This illustration provided Caltech/IPAC by depicts a planet skimming the surface of its star. (Caltech/IPAC via AP)
TT
20

With a Gulp and Burp, a Bloated Star Swallows a Jupiter-Sized Planet

This illustration provided Caltech/IPAC by depicts a planet skimming the surface of its star. (Caltech/IPAC via AP)
This illustration provided Caltech/IPAC by depicts a planet skimming the surface of its star. (Caltech/IPAC via AP)

In a glimpse of the dismal fate awaiting Earth, scientists for the first time have observed a star, bloated in its old age, swallowing a Jupiter-like planet, then expelling some material into space in an energetic belch.

Researchers said on Wednesday the star was in the early stages of what is called the red giant phase late in its lifespan as it depleted hydrogen fuel in its core and its dimensions began to expand. As the star grew, its surface reached the orbit of the doomed planet, with mayhem ensuing.

The star, which started out similar to our sun in size and composition, is located in our Milky Way galaxy about 12,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Aquila. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The star is around 10 billion years old, twice as old as the sun.

Red giant stars can swell to a hundred times their original diameter, engulfing any planets in their way. Scientists previously have observed such star expansion but not a planetary engulfment.

Mercury, Venus and finally Earth, our solar system's three innermost planets, will meet this destiny as the sun evolves through its red giant phase in about 5 billion years, according to Kishalay De, a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

The planet in this research was a type called a "hot Jupiter" - a gas giant resembling our solar system's biggest world but with an orbit much tighter to its star. This planet, perhaps a few times bigger than Jupiter, orbited its star in less than a day at a distance closer than Mercury, our innermost planet, orbits the sun.

As the star grew, its surface drew closer to the planet's orbit.

"The planet started to skim through the star's atmosphere just like a satellite falling into Earth's atmosphere. The deeper the planet fell into the star's atmosphere, the denser its surroundings, and the faster it was dragged inward," said study co-author Morgan MacLeod, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"This took a planetary orbit that may have existed stably for millions or billions of years, and caused it to plunge suddenly into the star, powering the emission that we see. Essentially, the star swallowed its planet so suddenly that we got to see its energetic burp," MacLeod said, referring to some material expelled into space in a luminous flare. "Intense heat eventually rips the planet apart, and its material is mixed throughout the star."

The researchers have not spotted other planets orbiting this star but are not ruling it out.

"This planet doesn't go out without a fight. Even before it is engulfed whole, our data provides evidence that the planet tries to rip out the star's surface layers with its own gravity. But the star happens to be a thousand times more massive so the planet can't do much and eventually makes the plunge," De said.

"It is humbling to think about our own planet meeting a similar fate, and even more so to realize that we are too small to cause the sun to experience an outburst like the one here. When Earth is eventually swallowed, the sun will hardly notice," MacLeod said.

The researchers used the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in California to spot the star rapidly become 100 times brighter, then figured out why this happened - ruling out, for instance, a merger of two stars.

"Powerful surveys at Caltech's Palomar Observatory are catching red-handed never-seen-before cosmic fireworks like this one," Caltech astronomy professor and study co-author Mansi Kasliwal said.



Syria Seeks EU Help to Battle Massive Wildfires

FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
TT
20

Syria Seeks EU Help to Battle Massive Wildfires

FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

Syria’s minister of emergencies and disaster management on Tuesday requested support from the European Union to battle wildfires that have swept through a vast stretch of forested land.

The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought.

Neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye have already dispatched firefighting teams to assist in the response.

“We asked the European Union for help in extinguishing the fires,” minister Raed al-Saleh said on X, adding Cyprus was expected to send aid on Tuesday, AFP reported.

“Fear of the fires spreading due to strong winds last night prompted us to evacuate 25 families to ensure their safety without any human casualties,” he added.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office in Syria, the fires impacted “some 5,000 persons, including displacements, across 60 communities.”

An estimated 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and farmland -- more than three percent of Syria’s forest cover -- have burned, OCHA told AFP.

At least seven towns in Latakia province have been evacuated as a precaution.

Efforts to extinguish the fires have been hindered by “rugged terrain, the absence of firebreaks, strong winds, and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance”, Saleh said.

With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.

In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”