It is far more common for lead to swallow up at least one of their planets than antecedently accredit , a new work reveals . However , there is no need to fear our own Sun has imminent designs on Mercury , permit alone Earth , since the new evidence relates tobinary star systems(those with two stars ) .
whizz and planet are often refer to as if they had a familial relationship , with musical phrase such as “ maternal star ” . To the extent that is true , it ’s as much a sound reflection of Roman myths about Saturn eating his children as what we think of as a family .
The fact stars sometimes consume planets has been have intercourse for a long time , but an endeavor to quantify how often it happen , published inNature Astronomy , produce a disturbingly mellow estimate to non - scientists ' eyes . At the same meter , the determination come as something of a ministration to uranologist , as it solve a puzzle that has been bothering expert in stellar composition .
In theory , stars that form from the same gas cloud should have a similar abundance of component . Yet many binary pairs contain one metallic element - rich and one metal - pathetic maven , something the paper describes as “ One of the most remarkable contradictions in modern stellar astrophysics . ” In a tiny number of cases , these stars may have take shape in dissimilar clouds and come to orbit each other later , but this would be too rare to notably dissemble the statistic .
Instead , two explanations were considered probable : either manikin are unseasonable and stars from the same swarm can start off with very different compositions , or it is common for one star to unsay a planet , changing its make - up in the process . The first would push us to throw out a raft of work based on the assumption of flatulency swarm homogeneousness .
To differentiate between these possibilitiesDr Lorenzo Spinaof the Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova and co - authors note hotshot with temperatures above 6,500 ° cytosine ( the Sun is around 6,000 ° C ) keep a book of planets they withdraw . nerveless star , however , have buddy-buddy convective out layers , in which a satellite ’s elements get mixed , debase a typical planet to the point where its elements are indiscernible . hot stars have much thinner eggshell , so the addition of a planet - Charles Frederick Worth of smoothing iron and Si make a noticeable difference ,
The writer compared the frequence of visibly unlike compositions in pairs of hot champion and their cooler similitude . They found divergence are much more vulgar in raging binary star , as would be gestate if swallowing planets is vulgar , but not if the headliner start with differing elementary abundances .
Using this selective information they conclude 20 - 35 percent of stars in binary brace have eaten at least one planet .
Young stars burn lithium rapidly , but this afterwards slow up down . accordingly , lithium abundance can provide some indication of the tip at which the satellite was swallowed . Spina told IFLScience the data have decipherable not all the planet swallowing occurs in star systems ' very early days , when object zing around like puddle testicle . However , he added , we ca n’t measure yet how often planets are eaten late in living .
Although the studies were done on binary system of rules , Spina told IFLScience it ’s not good to accept the riotous effect of one genius sends planets hurtle into the other in a mode that would n’t occur in a single star system , like ours . “ Most of the binary we wait at are very well severalise . Disruption is probably only really an issue intight binaries , ” he said .
