About one in every 12 stars may have swallowed a planet, a new study finds.
Previous research had discovered that some distant stars possess unusual levels of elements, such as iron, which one would expect to make up rocky worlds such as Earth. This and other evidence suggested that stars may sometimes ingest planets, but much remained uncertain about how often that might happen.
One way to uncover more about planetary ingestion is to look at two stars born at the same time. Such twins should have a virtually identical composition, as they are both born from the same parent cloud of gas and dust. Any major chemical differences between these so-called “co-natal” stars may thus be a sign that one devoured a world.
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