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For the first time in history, astronomers saw a star devour a planet, a new study published in the Astronomical Journal reports
. ] team of international scientists who used NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory to capture the event that took place 450 light-years from Earth
They believe that a great star known as RW Aur A swallowed a pair of planets crashing one into the other before collapsing into the rotating disc of the fire body.
The team first took note of RW Aur A some 80 years ago. Since then, they have noted that it is in the constellation Taurus-Auriga and is part of a binary system with another star that weighs as much as the sun.
However, what makes it particularly interesting is that it goes through a pattern where it darkens during extended periods before slowly lightening it again.
To explain its recent gradation, the team of the new study has looked more closely at the star. They discovered that he was perhaps stuck by a thick cloud of gas and dust created by two planets that crashed together and then fell into the star. It would have blocked its light
While computer models have long predicted that young stars can devour the planets, it was the first scientists who observed such an event.
the data is correct, this would be the first time we directly observe a young star devouring a planet or planets, "said lead author Hans Moritz Guenther, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to Tech Times. ]
This new information is important because not only does it mark an event never seen before, but it can also explain previous gradation episodes. For example, if two planets or the remains of past collisions crashed one on the other, this may have created debris that drifted into rogue orbits.
The new discovery marks a whole new phenomenon. Researchers hope to bring more light into the future.
"Computer simulations have long predicted that planets could fall into a young star, but we have never seen it before," adds Guenther, . "If our interpretation of the data is correct, it would be the first time we would directly observe a young star devour a planet or planets."
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