James Webb Spots Disturbing Sight: Entire Planet Sinking Into Star
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope appear to have made the first-ever direct observation of a star swallowing a planet.
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
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bright green meteor zooms past Sydney as auroras dazzle across Australia
A bright green meteor was seen zooming past Sydney on Sunday as spectacular southern lights lit up the skies across most of Australia and New Zealand. A Sydney resident named Tom McCallister posted a video of the meteor, about the size of a basketball, traversing the city's skies. 'Absolutely magnificent meteor seen travelling east to west over Sydney this evening,' Mr McCallister captioned the video posted on Facebook. 'This was looking north at 17:57 local time.' Astrophysicist Brad Tucker, from the Australian National University, agreed that the object was indeed a meteor due to its unique blue-green colour, indicative of iron and nickel content. Anyone else just see a green, long meteor over Canberra? Tried to get a photo but I've only got slow shutter speeds on - out waiting for Aurora Australis instead - but that's a good start to the night! — Nat (@raurkyn) June 1, 2025 People across New Zealand and on Australia's east coast were also treated to a dazzling display of southern lights on Sunday. Many skygazers later shared photos of aurora australis on social media. The space weather phenomenon is caused when bursts of charged particles released from the Sun – known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs – interact with the Earth's magnetic field, creating what's called a geomagnetic storm. The lights are called aurora australis in the southern hemisphere and aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere. Pictures posted on social media showed the sky glowing in hues of pink, red and green, with slight traces of yellow. The colours come from different molecules in the atmosphere getting charged by the Earth's magnetic field. Oxygen gives off a fluorescent green hue while nitrogen molecules interacting with the magnetic field generate a blue, red or pink shade. Auroras are seen when a strong solar storm from the Sun hits the Earth. They are more clearly visible around polar regions since the magnetic field is the strongest there. Aurora Australis dancing over Merimbula Lake in NSW, Australia this evening. — Fiona Brook (@The_Feefenator) June 1, 2025 Astronomers have predicted a strong geomagnetic storm on Sunday and Monday after a powerful CME was seen erupting from the Sun on Friday. The latest CME also caused aurora borealis across most of the continental US as far down south as Alabama. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the possibility of a severe geomagnetic storm remained 'in effect'. 'There are indications that the coronal mass ejection passage is weakening, but the solar wind conditions remain elevated, therefore additional periods of G3-G4 levels remain possible,' the NOAA said, using the designations for strong and severe category storms. 'However, we now anticipate that conditions should weaken enough by tomorrow evening, 2 June, that G1 storm levels are the most likely peak response.' The Sun is currently at the peak of its 11-year activity cycle.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Can adults grow new brain cells?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The developing human brain gains billions of neurons while in the womb, and tacks on some more during childhood. For most of the 20th century, the conventional wisdom was that the brain cells grown before adulthood would be the only ones we would have for the rest of our lives. But over the past few decades, more and more research is challenging that belief. So is it actually possible for adults to grow neurons? While some experts believe there's strong evidence that we can gain brain cells after childhood, others are still skeptical of this notion. The process of creating new brain cells is called neurogenesis. Researchers first observed neurogenesis after birth in lab animals of various ages, including mice, rats and songbirds. In adult mice, they found new neurons growing in parts of the brain collectively called the subventricular zone, an area closely linked with sense of smell, as well as in the hippocampus, a structure that's central to memory. Researchers think that neurogenesis in these brain regions is important for plasticity, or the brain's ability to adapt and change over time. Plasticity underlies the ability to learn and form memories, for instance. In mice, it's clear that lifestyle factors such as living in a stimulating environment and exercising can promote the growth of new neurons. Conversely, in mouse models of diseases like Alzheimer's, neurogenesis is hampered. What's still up for debate is whether these findings extend beyond mice and other lab animals. "Most of our knowledge about adult neurogenesis came from studies in animal models," Hongjun Song, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, told Live Science in an email. "Whether such knowledge can be directly translated to human studies is a challenge." That's because many of the studies that have established the existence of adult neurogenesis in animals used methods that aren't possible in human studies, such as injecting radioactive tracer molecules into the brain. These methods enable scientists to visualize if and where new neurons are growing, but the tracers themselves can be toxic. These methods also require dissecting the brain after the animal has been euthanized. "Unfortunately, there is no way to measure neurogenesis in the living person yet," Gerd Kempermann, a professor of genomics of regeneration at the Center for Regenerative Therapies in Dresden, Germany, told Live Science in an email. Related: Is there really a difference between male and female brains? Emerging science is revealing the answer. There are, however, some rare cases in which scientists have been able to apply similar methods to track neurogenesis in humans. For example, the radioactive tracer molecules used in animal neurogenesis studies are also sometimes used by doctors to track tumor growth in patients with brain cancer. While these radioactive tracer molecules are too toxic to give to healthy people, their benefits outweigh their risks in patients who already have cancer. Scientists behind a 1998 study published in the journal Nature Medicine used this approach and analyzed the brains of cancer patients after their deaths. They reported that, in addition to flagging cancer cells, the tracer molecules had marked new neurons in the hippocampus. This finding suggested that humans could grow new neurons well into adulthood, given the patients were 57 to 72 years old. Later, a 2013 study in the journal Cell used a form of radiocarbon dating to look for new neurons in humans. Radiocarbon dating usually determines the age of a sample by comparing the relative proportion of two different forms of carbon, or carbon isotopes, called carbon-14 and carbon-12. But to study neurogenesis in humans, scientists instead looked at carbon-14 concentrations inside the DNA of cells. Their approach took advantage of the fact that there was a spike in carbon-14 levels in the atmosphere caused by nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and 1960s. People's bodies absorbed this carbon-14 via their diets, and it became incorporated into their DNA. The amount of carbon-14 in a given cell corresponds to the isotope's concentrations in the atmosphere at the time the cell formed, making it possible to roughly pinpoint the "birthday" of that cell — and determine whether it formed after its owner's birth. By analyzing postmortem brain tissue from people ages 19 to 92, this radiocarbon study identified newborn neurons in the adult hippocampus. But while compelling, the study's methods were so complex that the results have never been replicated. That said, there are also more indirect markers of neurogenesis, such as certain proteins that are only present in growing neurons. Using these methods, both Kempermann and other research groups have uncovered additional evidence of newborn neurons in the adult human brain. "There are many different markers that are more or less specific for adult neurogenesis," Kempermann said. "In tissue sections, one can study these markers under the microscope and look for patterns that are consistent with neuronal development." But some researchers aren't convinced by this evidence. Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, a professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, has spent his career studying the growth of new neurons. While he's observed new neurons being formed in children and adolescents, he's found little evidence to support the notion of neurogenesis in adults. Alvarez-Buylla believes there are a number of issues that may lead other researchers to find signs of neurogenesis in adult humans. For example, the chemical markers that some labs use to track new neurons may also show up in other cell types, such as glia, which are cells in the brain that support neurons' function in various ways. This may make it appear that new neurons are growing when they're actually not. He's also skeptical of the use of carbon-14 dating for this purpose, calling it "creative" but arguing that researchers can't confirm that the new cells are neurons, or if there could be other potential reasons for varying carbon-14 levels in cells. But Alvarez-Buylla isn't ruling out the possibility of human adult neurogenesis; he's only saying that — so far — the evidence hasn't convinced him. "I would say that is a rare phenomenon," said Alvarez-Buylla. "If it happens, it's very, very few cells." Kempermann, on the other hand, is a firm believer that people can grow new neurons well into adulthood. "The positive reports outnumber the critical papers by far, their take is much wider, and their quality is overall higher." The researchers said that understanding whether adult neurogenesis exists will continue to be a key question for the field of neuroscience. RELATED STORIES —Could we ever retrieve memories from a dead person's brain? —What happens in your brain while you sleep? —How much of your brain do you need to survive? "The question about whether adults can grow new neurons has tremendous implications for the plasticity of the adult brain," Song said. If new neurons can be grown and integrated into the brain, he explained, those mechanisms could form the basis for new therapies for a variety of conditions, including brain injuries and neurodegenerative disorders. Alvarez-Buylla said that even if he doesn't believe neurogenesis happens frequently in adults, it may nonetheless be possible to harness the mechanisms used by animals to grow new neurons for human therapies. "The whole idea that it can happen opens a huge door for repair," he said. "I hope that we can keep our plasticity open to things going either way."
Forbes
20 hours ago
- Forbes
Immigration Research Shows Stephen Miller Wrong About American Science
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller attends a press briefing at the White House on ... More February 20, 2025. Miller, the chief architect of the Trump administration's immigration policy, argues that American scientific achievement owes little to immigrants. A significant body of research disputes that contention. (Photo by) Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the Trump administration's immigration policy, said recently that American scientific achievement owes little to immigrants. A significant body of research disputes that contention. Miller's argument and a statement by Vice President JD Vance about the Apollo Program seem designed to justify the administration's restrictions on international students and high-skilled immigrants. On May 31, 2025, in a statement on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller wrote, 'During the middle of the 20th century—when the U.S. achieved unquestioned global scientific dominance—there was net zero migration. From the 20's to the 70's the foreign-born population was cut almost by half while the overall population doubled. (Until Hart-Celler kicked in).' Contrary to the implication of Miller's statement, American science owes a great deal to immigrants in the post-war period. Between 1945 and 1974, 16 of the 30 U.S. winners of the Nobel Prize in physics were immigrants, according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis. In 1954, the Atomic Energy Act established an award recognizing scientific achievements in atomic energy. Italian-born Enrico Fermi won the first award. Five of the first eight winners of what became the Enrico Fermi Award (named after his death) were immigrants. Four of the nuclear scientists who came to the United States from Europe in the 1930s later received a Nobel Prize for physics: Felix Bloch, born in Switzerland, won it in 1952, Emilio Segre (Italy) in 1959, and Maria Mayer (Poland) and Eugene Wigner (Hungary) won the award in 1963. Despite the immigration restrictions imposed by Congress in 1921 and 1924, U.S. universities and others found ways around some of the quotas as fascist governments drove many brilliant individuals out of Europe. Immigrants Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard signed a letter used by Russian-born economist Alexander Sachs to convince President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project. Breakthroughs by Niels Bohr, born in Denmark, and Enrico Fermi were crucial in developing the atomic bomb. In the end, immigrant and U.S.-born scientists working together turned theory into reality in the race to build the bomb before Nazi Germany. Between 1945 and 1974, 15 of the 36 U.S. Nobel Prizes in medicine, or 42%, were awarded to immigrants. That tells only part of the story. Albert Sabin, an immigrant from Poland, and Jonas Salk, the son of an immigrant, developed the vaccines that ended polio as a threat to Americans. Both men were in America due to family immigration. 'Without Sabin and Salk, American children would continue to be paralyzed for life by polio,' Michel Zaffran, director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization, said in an interview. 'Their contribution is quite simply immeasurable.' Immigrants have been awarded 40% of the Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine and physics since 2000, according to an NFAP analysis (updated through the 2024 awards). Enrico Fermi in His Laboratory (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) The 1924 Immigration Act, which reduced the flow of immigrants by approximately 90% and blocked Jews, Eastern Europeans and Asians, proved disastrous economically for America. According to research by New York University economists Petra Moser and Shmuel San, the restrictive immigration quotas of the 1920s significantly reduced invention in the United States. 'After the quotas, U.S. scientists produced 68% fewer additional patents in the pre-quota fields of ESE-born [Eastern and Southern European immigrant] scientists compared with the pre-quota fields of other U.S. scientists,' write Moser and San. 'Time-varying effects show a large decline in invention by U.S. scientists in the 1930s, which persisted into the 1960s.' Moser and San said the results show that U.S. scientists benefited from the presence of immigrant scientists but suffered after U.S. immigration restrictions blocked their entry. 'A firm-level analysis of changes in patenting reveals that firms which employed ESE-born [Eastern and Southern European immigrant] scientists in 1921 created 53% fewer inventions after the quotas,' according to Moster and San. 'A text analysis of U.S. patents indicates that invention also declined more broadly. After the quotas, 23% fewer U.S. patents describe inventions in ESE [Eastern and Southern European immigrant] fields compared with other fields.' UPENN Wharton economics professor Zeke Hernandez said one would expect similar consequences today should U.S. immigration policy block the entry of international students and foreign-born scientists and engineers. 'America's innovation machine would be decimated,' said Hernandez. 'Sixteen percent of inventors in the U.S. are foreign-born, but they account for 36% of all patents.' He points out immigrants are 80% more likely than the U.S.-born to start new businesses, and they are founders of over half of startups that achieve a $1 billion valuation. Over 70% of the full-time graduate students in key technical fields at U.S. universities are foreign-born. According to economist Zeke Hernandez, 'You don't have to have compassion for foreigners to know that getting rid of immigrants is bad for us.'
