The researchers studied twin stars that should have the same composition. However, to the surprise of astronomers, they differed in about eight percent of the cases.
The research group, whose member is Meredith Joyce, winner of the Marie Curie Expansion Grant at the HUN–REN CSFK Konkoly Institute for Astronomy (HUN–REN CSFK KTM CSI), concluded that the difference is due to the fact that one of the stars swallowed the planets Or planetary debris far away – read the research center's announcement on Thursday.
According to the report, larger telescopes were needed to obtain the results: the researchers used the 6.5-meter Magellan telescope in Chile and the European Southern Observatory's 8-meter VLT telescopes, and they also relied on data from the 10-meter Keck telescope. Telescope in Hawaii, MTI Books.
We looked at the twin stars moving together. They were born from the same molecular cloud, so they must be identical. Thanks to high-resolution analysis, we found chemical differences between the twins. This is very strong evidence that a star has absorbed planets or planetary material and changed its composition
It is to explain Van Leeut, a researcher at Monash University in Melbourne, is the lead author of the technical article.
This phenomenon occurred in at least seven of the 91 twin star pairs examined, in about eight percent of the sample.
What makes the result special is that these stars, like the Sun, are in the prime of their lives, and not red giants in the final stages of their lives.
“This is different from previous studies, where late-stage red giant stars can engulf nearby planets,” Fan Liu added.
According to the announcement, there are still some doubts about whether stars swallow planets whole, or whether debris left over from planetary formation flows into them. The authors believe that both are possible. Whatever is true, it would be difficult to explain the chemical differences between pairs of stars in any other way, such as internal processes in stars.
According to the statement, the findings could have far-reaching consequences for the study of the long-term evolution of planetary systems. They also shed new light on the stability of planetary systems orbiting binary star systems. In the future, researchers want to expand the sample of stars examined. Understanding when and how often stars engulf their planets could have a fundamental impact on the spread of life or intelligence around other stars in the Milky Way.