Astrophysicists have witnessed a star consuming a planet for the first time, leaving behind a dusty belch. The event occurred around 12,000 light-years away and was discovered by MIT astrophysicist Kishalay De while searching for binary stars using data from the Palomar Observatory in California. De noticed a spot of light that rapidly increased in brightness, indicating that one star was sucking matter from another. However, further analysis by NASA’s NEOWISE infrared space telescope revealed that the energy released was too low for a merger between two stars and that the resulting dust suggested a planet had been consumed.
Astrophysicists capture a star consuming a planet for the first time.
