A groundbreaking discovery suggests a planet may have self-destructed by heading straight into its parent star, marking what could be the first-ever recorded instance of planetary suicide.
Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery that suggests a planet may have self-destructed by heading straight into its parent star, marking what could be the first-ever recorded instance of ‘planetary suicide.’ The observation was made using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, which has provided new insights into the phenomenon.
A planet is a celestial body that orbits around a star.
The formation of planets occurs through the accretion of dust and gas in a protoplanetary disk.
This process can take millions of years, resulting in a solid, rocky, or gaseous body with its own atmosphere.
Planets have distinct layers, including the crust, mantle, and core.
The size, composition, and temperature of planets vary greatly, influencing their potential for supporting life.
In theory, a star can consume one of its planets only if it undergoes a significant increase in size, becoming a red giant. This process is a natural part of a star’s life cycle and occurs when it exhausts its hydrogen fuel and expands to many times its original size. The solar system itself is expected to experience this transformation in about 5 billion years.
When a star absorbs a planet, astronomers detect an increase in its luminosity, known as a nova. However, the exact cause of a nova is often difficult to determine, and previous observations have been inconclusive. In 2023, the Gemini South observatory detected a nova 12,000 light-years away, but further analysis revealed that the star was still in its main sequence phase, making it unlikely that the nova was caused by the consumption of a planet.
New data from the James Webb Space Telescope has provided conclusive evidence that the 2023 nova was indeed caused by the consumption of a Jupiter-sized planet. The team analyzed the star’s luminosity and ejected dust debris 820 days after its peak brightness, providing new insights into the phenomenon. They believe that the planet gradually approached its star until it was destroyed by the star’s outer layers.
A Jupiter-sized planet is a gas giant with a mass at least 1.5 times that of the planet 'Jupiter', making it one of the largest objects in our solar system.
These planets are primarily composed of hydrogen and helium gases.
They can have multiple moons and strong storm systems, such as the 'Great Red Spot' on Jupiter.
According to NASA, over 2,000 exoplanets discovered so far are gas giants, with many being similar in size to Jupiter.
Scientists estimate that the process of planetary consumption may have been triggered by the gravitational pull of nearby celestial bodies, such as other stars or planets. This gravitational force would have extracted some of the planet’s orbital energy, pulling it out of its stable path towards the host star. However, not all scientists are convinced by this explanation, and alternative theories propose that the star may be surrounded by a dense cloud of stellar dust, which could be dampening its luminosity.
New measurements with more powerful telescopes will provide better evidence for what happened to the consumed planet. It is also possible that future observations will reveal more instances of planetary suicide in other systems, challenging our current understanding of these phenomena.
Planetary suicide refers to a hypothetical scenario where a planet, due to various natural or artificial causes, becomes uninhabitable and eventually self-destructs.
This can occur through extreme climate change, asteroid impacts, volcanic eruptions, or other catastrophic events.
The term is often used in the context of planetary defense and mitigation strategies to prevent such disasters.
For instance, scientists have proposed methods like solar shades to deflect asteroids and geoengineering techniques to regulate Earth's temperature.
