Unveiling the Cosmic Mystery
Astronomers utilizing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have introduced a significant plot twist to a longstanding cosmic mystery.

The event in question, which involved a sudden brightening from a star approximately 12,000 light-years away, was initially attributed to the star expanding into a red giant and engulfing a nearby planet, a common occurrence in some star systems.

However, upon further examination, the Webb Space Telescope’s infrared capabilities, courtesy of its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), revealed a different scenario. The star, designated as ZTF SLRN-2020, appeared calm and did not exhibit the characteristic swelling of a red giant. This observation suggests that the planet did not meet its demise due to explosive stellar behavior, but rather as a result of a slow orbital death spiral.

New Research Reveals a Fiery Demise
The recent study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, reveals that the unfortunate planet, roughly the size of Jupiter, was orbiting its host star at a perilously close distance, even closer than Mercury’s orbit around the Sun. Over the course of millions of years, the planet’s orbit gradually shrank, ultimately leading to a catastrophic collision with the star’s atmosphere. According to study co-author Morgan MacLeod, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and MIT, the planet’s material began to "smear around the star," culminating in a fiery faceplant into the star.

The study’s lead author, Ryan Lau, an astronomer at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, noted, "Because this is such a novel event, we didn’t quite know what to expect when we decided to point this telescope in its direction. With its high-resolution look in the infrared, we are learning valuable insights about the final fates of planetary systems, possibly including our own."

A Revised Account of Planetary Demise
The planet’s material, which smeared onto ZTF SLRN-2020, likely caused the dramatic brightening that initially caught astronomers’ attention. This observation has revised astronomers’ understanding of the first star seen actively swallowing a planet.

A Glimpse into the Future of Cosmic Observations
The observation of this planetary doom spiral was part of one of Webb’s Target of Opportunity programs, reserved for sudden and unusual cosmic events, such as supernovas. With the upcoming deployment of next-generation telescopes, including the Vera Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, astronomers are poised to uncover many more macabre stories of planetary demise.