Scientists catch star swallowing planet for first time

LOS ANGELES, May 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers reported in a new study that they have for the first time observed a star swallowing a planet.

As a star runs out of fuel, it will billow out to a million times its original size, engulfing any matter and planets in its wake, according to the study published in Nature on Wednesday.

The planetary demise appears to have taken place in our own galaxy, some 12,000 light-years away, near the eagle-like constellation Aquila.

Astronomers spotted an outburst from a star that became more than 100 times brighter over just 10 days, before quickly fading away. This white-hot flash was followed by a colder, longer-lasting signal.

This combination could only have been produced by one event: a star engulfing a nearby planet, the scientists deduced.

A similar fate will befall the Earth, though not for another 5 billion years, when the sun is expected to burn out, and burn up the solar system's inner planets, according to the team led by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and Caltech.

"We are seeing the future of the Earth," said lead author Kishalay De, a postdoc in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

"If some other civilization was observing us from 10,000 light-years away while the sun was engulfing the Earth, they would see the sun suddenly brighten as it ejects some material, then form dust around it, before settling back to what it was," De said.