One in ten stars in the Milky Way will eat a planet the size of Jupiter or larger. It probably won't happen in our Solar System, though.
As these evolved stars lose mass, they expand, and at this stage, any planets in close proximity are in peril. The star’s convective envelope swells and ensnares the planet. This creates drag, which causes the planet to spiral inward toward the star. Astronomers know this, and in this work, the authors examined the frequency of these events and how the stars respond.
While many astrophysical events play out over thousands, millions, or even hundreds of millions of years, planetary engulfment is a much quicker process. But before the planet and star come into contact, two things draw them together: stellar expansion and orbital decay. This is the first phase of the engulfment, where tidal friction causes the planet’s orbital decay. The authors explain that the tidal friction is “most likely due to turbulent dissipation in the star’s convective envelope.
When a planet is in the inspiral phase, it deposits heat into the star. The latter part of this phase is called the late inspiral phase, and the heat added to the star during this phase is largely responsible for the star’s response. The mass of the planet is a determining factor in how much heat is deposited.
This research agrees with previous research showing that planet engulfment leads to optical and infrared bursts in luminosity. The power and duration of these bursts are largely determined by the mass of the planet and the star, though other factors like rotation can come into play. The researchers found that for all RGB stars, and for AGB stars engulfing planets up to five Jupiter masses, the star brightens considerably in only a few years.
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