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Planet swallowed after venturing too close to its star

An outburst of radiation offers direct evidence that a star has consumed a giant planet. But not every planet ends up as a stellar host’s snack — the star’s properties, and its interactions with the planet, have to be just right.
  1. Smadar Naoz

    1. Smadar Naoz is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA, and at the Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Los Angeles.

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There’s a long-standing theory that some stars eat their planets. However, such planetary engulfment has never been caught in action — until now. In a paper in Nature, De et al.1 report a puzzling set of observations that they conclude must be the result of a star consuming its giant-planet companion.

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Nature 617, 38-39 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01385-3

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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