Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have made a groundbreaking observation: they detected a star seemingly consuming a planet, originally thought to be a planetary engulfment event. However, further analysis revealed the star, ZTF SLRN-2020, was not in its expected red giant phase. Instead, the evidence suggests that a Jupiter-sized planet may have plunged into its star in a dramatic act of 'planetary suicide.' This discovery sheds light on the complex interactions during the later stages of stellar evolution and challenges previous assumptions about such cosmic events.
Because this is such a novel event, we didn't quite know what to expect when we decided to point this telescope in its direction.
If this was the first directly detected planetary engulfment event, what better target is there to point at?
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