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Our Sun may have swallowed a planet 10 times as big as Earth
BBC Sky at Night Magazine • • science
Key Points:
- New research suggests the Sun may have engulfed a rocky super-Earth-sized planet early in its history, leaving a chemical imprint inside the star.
- Simulations using MESA software indicate a missing planet with a mass 5–10 times that of Earth could have fallen into the young Sun, potentially explaining discrepancies in solar models.
- The swallowed planet might have survived its descent through the Sun’s outer layers largely intact, affecting the Sun’s internal structure and lithium abundance.
- While this hypothesis helps address long-standing differences between solar observations and models, it is not definitive, and other explanations remain possible.
- The research team plans to seek independent verification of the predicted chemical fingerprints through helioseismology and other observational methods.
