(AccuWeather) Planet’s doom may reveal fate of Earth
--A new study published in the journal Nature detailed the blazing bright end of a planet roughly the same size as Jupiter.
The discovery was made about three years ago by astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility near San Diego. As they were scanning the sky one night, they noticed an unusually bright object. The star in question is located about 15,000 light-years from Earth, and it took some time before scientists figured out what was going on. Mansi Kasliwal, a professor of astronomy at Caltech, said, “when every single clue fell right in place, then I was convinced that what we were seeing here was indeed a star engulfing a planet,” according to an NPR report.
The observations may be a glimpse into the future of the Earth. “Like all stars, our Sun will eventually run out of energy,” NASA explained. “When it starts to die, the Sun will expand into a red giant star, becoming so large that it will engulf Mercury and Venus, and possibly Earth as well.” However, this certain doom is not expected anytime soon with NASA projecting that it will take place in about 5 billion years.
