News Astronomy

For the first time, astrophysicists have caught a star eating a planet

A dusty burp in space remained after the star’s planetary snack

An illustration of a giant orange star eating a much smaller red planet and a giant burst of bright white dust expanding outward from the tiny planet.

Dust blasts into space as a star (illustrated) swallows a planet about 10 times the mass of Jupiter.

K. Miller and R. Hurt/IPAC/Caltech

By James R. Riordon

A dusty belch is all that remains of a planet that was gobbled up by a star about 12,000 light-years away. It marks the first time anyone has seen a star in the act of eating a planet.

A brief burst of light captured by a couple of telescopes was probably caused by a planet about 10 times the mass of Jupiter being swallowed by its sun, researchers report May 3 in Nature.