Dying star eats ‘Jupiter-sized’ planet: ‘We are seeing the future of Earth’

Ya burnt!

For the first time — and in our own Milky Way galaxy — scientists were able to watch in real time as a dying star sucked a “Jupiter-sized world” into its blazing core.

The stunning act of celestial cannibalism, which took place 12,000 light-years away, left researchers from MIT, Harvard and Caltech agog as the glowing ball of hot gas burned many times brighter over a multi-day period, before fizzling out.

“As a star runs out of fuel, it will billow out to a million times its original size, engulfing any matter — and planets — in its wake,” a report issued by MIT stated.

Call it a preview of coming attractions — in 5 billion years’ time, scientists said.

“We are seeing the future of the Earth,” lead MIT researcher Kishalay De wrote.

“If some other civilization was observing us from 10,000 light-years away while the sun was engulfing the Earth, they would see the sun suddenly brighten as it ejects some material, then form dust around it, before settling back to what it was,” De said.

The engulfment was observed in May 2020. Scientists spent a considerable amount of time afterward confirming the event, as well as conducting further research.

“We were seeing the end-stage of the swallowing,” De said. “It was unlike any stellar outburst I had seen in my life.”

Rapid temperature changes were the dead giveaway, he said.

“That’s when we realized: This was a planet, crashing into its star.”

Scientists were also able to spot a bright hot flash from the planet, likely caused during its final moments before being sucked into the suddenly-supersized sphere.

As it disappeared into the mass, “the outer layers of the star blasted away, settling out as cold dust over the next year,” De said.

“Before, when the planets are still orbiting very close to their star, and after, when a planet has already been engulfed, and the star is giant,” he said.

“What we were missing was catching the star in the act, where you have a planet undergoing this fate in real-time. That’s what makes this discovery really exciting.”