Astronom. J. 135, 2287–2290 (2008)

Astronomers should, in principle, be able to spot a planet being gobbled up by its star, according to the calculations of Alessandro Massarotti of Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

In the later phase of life, most stars swell to a size large enough to swallow an orbiting planet. In some cases, the meal should be detectable as a change in the star's rotation, but astronomers have had no idea how often the circumstances necessary for observing this will arise.

Massarotti used a public database of extrasolar planets to calculate that watching planet gobbling should be possible in about 1% of cases. He believes that this result backs up three possible detections made by him and others during a survey published in 2007.