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Astronomers discover at least one in a dozen stars show evidence of planetary ingestion

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2024-03-29 02:00:04

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Artist's impression of a terrestrial planet being captured by a twin star. Credit: intouchable, OPENVERSE

The international research team studied twin stars that should have identical composition. But, in about 8% of cases, they differ, perplexing astronomers.

The team, led by ASTRO 3D researchers has found that the difference is due to one of the twins devouring planets or planetary material.

The findings have been made possible thanks to a large dataset collected with the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, both in Chile, and the 10-meter Keck Telescope in Hawaii, United States.

"We looked at twin stars traveling together. They are born of the same molecular clouds and so should be identical," says ASTRO 3D Researcher Dr. Fan Liu, from Monash University, and lead author of the paper.