A recent study has brought to light an interesting astronomical phenomenon — ZTF J1539+5027, a star similar in size and composition to our sun has been observed swallowing a planet about the size of Jupiter. This action caused the star to expel some material into space in an energetic burst referred to as a ‘belch’. Researchers utilizing the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory were able to spot the star rapidly increase in brightness by 100 times. It was after this observation that they discovered the cause.
Details About the Star and the Study Findings
The star in question resides within our Milky Way galaxy, approximately 12,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Aquila. Due to its location, the constellation Aquila can be seen from the northern hemisphere between July and October each year. This star is roughly 10 billion years old, which is twice as old as the sun. Despite its age, the star is in the early stages of the red giant phase. This means it has expanded due to the exhaustion of hydrogen fuel in its core. Such stars can grow to be a hundred times larger than their original size, resulting in the engulfment of any planets in their path.
The Star’s Interaction with the Planet
The study revealed that as the star grew in size, the planet’s orbit brought it too close for safety. As a result, the planet was incrementally drawn into the star’s atmosphere. The closer the planet got, the more intense the gravitational pull became. Eventually, the planet plummeted into the star at high speed, leading to the emission of intense radiation.
A Brief Overview of a Star’s Life Cycle
The life cycle of a star begins with a nebula, where gravity pulls gas and dust together to form a protostar. This phase leads to the main sequence stage, where the star’s core becomes sufficiently hot for nuclear fusion to begin. At this point, the star begins burning hydrogen in its core, which generates energy and allows the star to shine brightly. The life span of a star is largely dependent on its size — smaller stars burn fuel at a slower rate and can shine for billions of years, while larger stars burn up their fuel quickly and may only last hundreds of thousands of years. When a star exhausts its hydrogen supply, it expands and cools down, evolving into a red giant. Smaller stars eventually become black dwarfs via the intermediate stages of a planetary nebula and a white dwarf, while more massive stars explode as supernovae, scattering material across space and leaving behind either a neutron star or a black hole.
Significance Of Observing Black Hole Mergers
The observation of black hole mergers billions of light-years away from Earth is significant due to the detection of gravitational waves released during such cosmic events. Gravitational waves are disturbances in the curvature of spacetime that are generated by accelerated masses and propagate as waves, traveling outward from their source. Their existence was first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 in his General Theory of Relativity. Cataclysmic occurrences like merging black holes, collapsing supernovae, and coalescing neutron stars or white dwarf stars produce the strongest gravitational waves. These waves have been detected once again, specifically from the merger of two light black holes located about a billion light-years away from Earth. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) recorded these waves.
