Using the California Institute of Technology’s (Caltech) Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) observatory, a group of scientists has observed an aging star destroying a planet within its own star system for the first time. Astronomers have long believed that such a phenomenon occurred in red giant star systems, but have never directly observed the event — until now.
Given that our own Sun will evolve into a red giant star in approximately five billion years, the research, led by Kishalay De of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will provide astronomers with a glimpse into what the future of our solar system may look like when our Sun eventually absorbs Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth.