An image of the Sun at close range. Paul Andrew was pictured via the Daily Mail.
Bangkok – All stars, including the sun, have a finite lifespan that will eventually come to an end, consuming the planets that circle them. Astronomers have observed the first signs of a sun-like star dying and gulping down a planet, which may be a foreshadowing of Earth’s ultimate demise.
The Gemini South telescope in Chile was used to observe the catastrophic event, which was about 13,000 light years away. When stars, like the Sun, are getting close to the end of their lives, such a spectacle can be seen.
When a star is dying, it enlarges to 1,000 times its normal size and becomes a “red giant.” They eventually ate up their Solar System’s inner planet. The Milky Way Galaxy experiences these occurrences on a regular basis, but they have never been directly observed before.
In just 10 days, the star increased in brightness by nearly 100 times before disappearing. Then a chilly signal with a longer duration started to reach Earth. It might be the last signs of a planet that has been engulfed by its star.
Astronomers describe how ZTF SLRN-2020, which has been given the name ZTF SLRN-2020, was discovered using imaging technologies on Gemini South and archived infrared data from NASA’s satellite telescope in a paper published in the journal Nature.
The star is thought to be between 0.8 and 1.5 times the mass of our sun, according to a quotation from Sky News. Exoplanets that are swallowed range in mass from one to ten times that of Jupiter.
According to scientists, our solar system will certainly experience a similar scenario, with the Sun eventually devouring Mercury and Venus in the same manner as it did Earth. Don’t panic though; this occurrence is only predicted to occur once in 5 billion years.
“We are considering the planet’s future. When the sun devoured the earth, alien civilizations watching us from 10,000 light years away would have noticed a rapid brightening of the sun as it expelled material and created dust around it, according to Dr. Kishalay De of MIT.
