Astronomers first saw the apocalypse on another planet - it was swallowed up by a star

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the first time observed, as the Sun-like star ZTF SLRN-2020 swallowed up a Jupiter-sized gas giant. She literally "ate" him - in just a few months.

When a star runs out of hydrogen for fusion in its core, a transformation occurs: the star first collapses to start helium fusion, and then expands, becoming many times larger. So some of them become red giants and absorb the nearest planets as they expand. Until now, this process has never been directly observed.

In the case of ZTF SLRN-2020, located about 12,000 light-years away, the researchers noticed an outburst in which the star became more than 100 times brighter in 10 days and then faded out again. The bright white flash was followed by a colder and longer signal. These observations point to one possible event: the combustion of the planet closest to the star.

For the ZTF neighbor SLRN-2020, it was a real apocalypse. The aging star began to expand until its surface reached the orbit of its neighbor. Under the influence of hot gas from the surface of the star, the planet began to burn and disintegrate. The material of this destruction was ejected into space, where it turned into dust, creating an infrared signature, which was observed using the NEOWISE telescope. This end of the world stretched for almost 9 months.

Scientist addedthat Mercury, Venus and probably the Earth and Mars will suffer the same fate. Thus, the end of ZTF SLRN-2020 provides a better understanding of what will happen to the Sun and planets in about 5 billion years.