Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2023

29 JULY-AUGUST 2023 ASTRO PUBLISHING the billions of stars in our Milky Way that have already consumed their planets,” says Ryan Lau, NOIRLab as- tronomer and co-author on this study, which is published in the jour- nal Nature. For most of its life, a Sun-like star fuses hydrogen into helium in its hot, dense core, which allows the star to push back against the crush- ing weight of its outer layers. When hydrogen in the core runs out, the star begins fusing helium into car- I maginative representation of the first evidence of a dying Sun-like star engulfing an exoplanet. Evidence for this event was found in a telltale “long and low-energy” outburst from a star in the Milky Way about 13,000 light-years from Earth. This event likely presages the ultimate fate of Mercury, Venus, and Earth when our Sun begins its death throes in about five billion years. [Interna- tional Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/ NSF/AURA/M. Garlick/M. Zamani]