James Webb Spots Disturbing Sight: Entire Planet Sinking Into Star
Clearly the stellar host was the culprit of this gruesome crime. Acts of "planetary engulfment" occur when a star enters its red giant stage — as our own Sun is fated to do — in a period near the end of its stellar evolution in which it slowly cools and puffs outward, dooming any world it eventually touches.
But the astronomer's new study published in The Astrophysical Journal suggests otherwise. They discovered signs that it was actually the ill-fated planet that charged headlong into its own star, in an act of planetary suicide.
"Because this is such a novel event, we didn't quite know what to expect when we decided to point this telescope in its direction," said lead author Ryan Lau, an astronomer at the NSF NOIRLab in Arizona, in a statement about the work.
Residing some 12,000 light years away, researchers first spotted signs of the star, ZTF SLRN-2020, engulfing a planet in 2023. The telltale was a bright flash of light that betrayed the presence of dust, likely the remains of a disemboweled quondam world. What's more, early evidence suggested that the star was like our Sun, and was entering into its red giant stage.
It was coming together. By all accounts, they had caught ZTF SLRN-2020 red handed, and decided to get a second look with the James Webb.
"If this was the first directly detected planetary engulfment event, what better target is there to point at?" Lau told Science.
Using the orbital observatory's Mid-Infrared Instrument, though, they made a surprising discovery. The star was simply not bright enough to be a red giant, blowing the case wide open. If it wasn't a red giant, then it couldn't have puffed outward to swallow anything.
Instead, the team believes that the planet was a Jupiter-sized world that orbited close to the star to begin with, perhaps even closer than Mercury orbits our Sun. Disruptions in the tidal forces between the two bodies led the planet to be nudged inward over millions of years.
"The planet eventually started to graze the star's atmosphere," said coauthor Morgan MacLeod, a Harvard astrophysicist, in the statement. "Then it was a runaway process of falling in faster from that moment."
As it met its face, the planet took a chunk out of its star, too, blasting some of its outer layers into space with the impact. Eventually, the ejecta cooled into a ring of cold dust encircling the star. But the bloodstain pattern doesn't quite add up. In another twist, the researchers also found another circumstellar ring of hot molecular gas even closer to the star, resembling a planet-forming region more than it does the vestiges of a vaporized world.
In any case, there's a lot for the astronomers to chew on. Is this what the crime scene of a planetary engulfment typically looks like? And is this a more common form of demise than the red giant hypothesis?
"This is truly the precipice of studying these events. This is the only one we've observed in action, and this is the best detection of the aftermath after things have settled back down," Lau said in the statement. "We hope this is just the start of our sample."
More on Webb discoveries: Fearless James Webb Telescope Stares Down "City Killer" Asteroid That Had Been Feared to Strike Earth
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Six-Planet Parade On Monday: When And Where To See It By A Crescent Moon
The 'planet parade' — mistakenly being called an alignment by many — continues on Monday, Aug. 18, with four planets visible to the naked eye an hour before sunrise. Uranus and Neptune will also be in the sky, making six planets in total, but neither of the gas giants will be visible to the naked eye. It's the rise of Mercury this week that effectively creates the 'planet parade,' although arguably, it's the presence of a beautiful waning crescent moon that makes the sight worth getting up early for. From Aug. 17–21, a spectacular 'planet parade' (also called an alignment) features the moon and six planets. getty A 26%-lit waning crescent moon will shine high above Jupiter and Venus in the eastern sky about an hour before sunrise. Venus will be the brightest planet, with Jupiter just above it, the next brightest. Above these two planets will be the crescent moon, while below will be Mercury, which will be easiest to see closer to sunrise. Saturn, visible in the southern sky, is now close to its annual bright 'opposition' on Sept. 21, when Earth will be between Saturn and the sun. As a consequence, it will be at its biggest, brightest and best. If you plan to rise early this week once to view the 'planet parade,' go for Wednesday, Aug. 20, when a slim crescent moon will be very close to Venus — a beautiful sight. It's over three years until the next impressive 'planet parade,' when in October 2028, five planets will be visible together again before sunrise. Monday, August 18: 'Planet Parade' And A Crescent Moon Stellarium On Tuesday, Aug. 19, the waning crescent moon will have sunk a little lower in the sky and be approaching Jupiter and Venus. At 16%-lit, it will begin to display 'Earthshine' — sunlight reflected onto the lunar surface by Earth's ice caps, oceans and clouds. Although it depends on where you watch from, Mercury will be at its apparent farthest from the sun on Tuesday, Aug. 19, so it will be one of the best mornings to see the 'Swift Planet,' which orbits the sun in just 88 days and is mostly lost in its glare from Earth's point of view. However, arguably, the highlight of the 'planet parade' this week will come on Wednesday, Aug. 20, when a 9%-lit crescent moon will appear very close to Venus. The Orion constellation rises over a hill through high thin clouds near Black Mesa, Oklahoma. getty Skywatchers gazing at the 'planet parade' will likely notice some familiar stars on the right-hand side of Venus, Jupiter and the moon. One of the most iconic and easily recognizable of all the winter constellations in the Northern Hemisphere, Orion is visible right now before sunrise because the sun recently passed through that part of the sky in May and June. The most obvious shape is Orion's Belt — three stars (Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka) in a straight line —with red giant Betelgeuse roughly between the belt stars and Jupiter. On the other side of the belt star is the bright blueish star Rigel. If you stay up long enough to see Mercury rising, look to the right for Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. The stars of Orion's Belt will point directly at it as it appears on the eastern horizon close to sunrise. What's Next In The Night Sky Mercury will gradually disappear from the pre-dawn sky as it continues its speedy journey around the sun, leaving Saturn, Jupiter and Venus as the only planets visible to the naked eye. Skywatching highlights in September include Saturn at its biggest, brightest and best as it reaches its annual 'opposition" on Sept. 21, a total lunar eclipse on Sept. 7 for those in Asia, Africa and western Australia, a stunning view of a waning crescent moon, Venus and bright star Regulus on Sept. 19, and a partial solar eclipse on Sept. 21 for the Pacific Ocean. Further Reading Forbes 'Planet Parade' Myths Debunked And How To Truly See It — By A Stargazer By Jamie Carter Forbes Your Ultimate Guide To Meteor Showers And The Perseids — By An Expert By Jamie Carter Forbes NASA Urges Public To Leave The City As Milky Way Appears — 15 Places To Go By Jamie Carter
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Moon phase today: What the moon will look like on August 16, 2025
The moon is half lit up tonight, which means a lot of things. Namely, we're in a new lunar cycle. The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. So, what's happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 16? What is today's moon phase? As of Saturday, Aug. 16, the moon phase is Third Quarter (also known as the Last Quarter) and it is 46% lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation. From this point onwards, the moon will be less and less visible, as we're now on day 23 of the lunar cycle. But there's still plenty to spot on the moon's surface, if you look hard enough. With your naked eye, catch a glimpse of the Aristarchus Plateau, the Tycho Crater, and the Copernicus Crater. With binoculars, see even more, including the Archimedes Crater, Alphonsus Crater, and the Clavius Crater. If you have a telescope, look out for the Apollo 12, Reiner Gamma, and the Schiller Crater, too. When is the next full moon? The next full moon will be on Sept. 7. The last full moon was on Aug. 9. What are moon phases? According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon's orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle: New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye). Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere). First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon. Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it's not quite full yet. Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible. Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side. Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit. Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
'It makes no sense to say there was only one origin of Homo sapiens': How the evolutionary record of Asia is complicating what we know about our species
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The story of our ancient ancestors began in Africa millions of years ago. But there are considerable gaps between the first and current chapters of that tale, and some anthropologists are looking to Asia to fill in missing information about how humans evolved. "The genus Homo evolved in Africa," Sheela Athreya, a biological anthropologist at Texas A&M University, told Live Science. But as soon as Homo left the continent, "all bets are off because evolution is going to treat every population differently." One bet Athreya is investigating is the notion that there wasn't a single origin of our species, Homo sapiens. Rather, the ancestors of today's humans living in different geographic regions took different evolutionary paths, before eventually coalescing into the human tribe we know today. Once humans left Africa, "you have so much complexity that it makes no sense to say there was only one origin of Homo sapiens," Athreya said. Key to this story is a different understanding of human evolution in Asia — and the possibility that Denisovans, a group of little-understood extinct human ancestors known from just a handful of fossils, were actually the same as a much earlier member of our family tree: Homo erectus, Athreya argues. Related: Strange, 300,000-year-old jawbone unearthed in China may come from vanished human lineage Early humans in ancient Asia There's a big gap in human evolutionary history. We know Homo evolved in Africa and that a human ancestor, Homo erectus, was already in Asia and parts of Europe by about 1.8 million years ago. But what happened in Asia between that point and the time when Homo sapiens arrived around 50,000 years ago? That picture is much less clear. To help fill it in, Athreya has considered the emergence of our species, Homo sapiens, during the Middle and Late Pleistocene epoch (780,000 to 11,700 years ago). Her "deep-dive" into the human fossil record of Asia has convinced her that there are evolutionary pathways in places like Java, Indonesia, that differ from the Pleistocene patterns seen in Africa and Europe. H. erectus reached Java at least 1.5 million years ago, and the species likely lasted there until 108,000 years ago. But the lack of more recent H. erectus bones doesn't necessarily mean they went extinct, Athreya wrote in a 2024 study with co-author Yousuke Kaifu, an anthropologist at the University of Tokyo. Instead, these Javanese H. erectus could have persisted until H. sapiens appeared in Sumatra as early as 73,000 years ago and interbred with them. The fossil record in China is similarly complicated. Around 300,000 years ago, there was a shift in what H. erectus fossils looked like, Athreya said. Skeletons in the Middle Pleistocene in China became more variable in form, and traits that were common in Western Eurasian groups like H. sapiens and Neanderthals, such as smoother bicuspid teeth, began to appear in these fossils. This means that — instead of completely dying out — H. erectus in China may have made a genetic contribution to populations living today, Athreya said, just as Neanderthals left genetic traces in people with European ancestry and Denisovans contributed DNA to people with Oceania ancestry. The idea isn't impossible, one expert told Live Science. Groups of ancient human relatives could have mated anywhere they met up, Adam Van Arsdale, a biological anthropologist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, told Live Science. No matter where they lived, "I just think humans aren't that different" during the Pleistocene. What's more, anthropologists are starting to realize that many of these groups that looked very different could still have interbred. Twenty years ago, scientists would have said "there's no possible way" they could have interbred, Van Arsdale said. "And I just don't think we can assume that anymore." So far, no DNA has been recovered from H. erectus fossils, largely because most of their fossils are too old, so there's no genetic support for this idea. But emerging methods for extracting ancient proteins from fossils may soon make it feasible to identify some H. erectus genes. Another route to understanding the fate of H. erectus in Asia may be to look more closely at the enigmatic Denisovans. RELATED STORIES —Oldest wooden tools unearthed in East Asia show that ancient humans made planned trips to dig up edible plants —Ancient jawbone dredged off Taiwan seafloor belongs to mysterious Denisovan, study finds —140,000 year old bones of our ancient ancestors found on sea floor, revealing secrets of extinct human species Since the only known skull of a Denisovan looks similar, in many ways, to that of H. erectus, those two groups may actually be one and the same. "I don't think that genetics is going to find that Homo erectus was a separate dead-end lineage," Athreya said. "I would expect Denisovans to be Homo erectus." But until more work is done that combines DNA, artifacts and fossil bones in Southeast Asia, the full picture of human evolution cannot yet come into focus the way it has in places like Europe, Athreya said. Human evolution quiz: What do you know about Homo sapiens?
