The sun, primarily known for acting as a source of energy, is hiding another secret. In its early history, our star was a cosmic cannibal, swallowing a super-Earth planet billions of years ago, as suggested by a new study.
According to research, the young sun swallowed a super-Earth 5 to 10 times the mass of Earth early in its history. The scientists involved in the study believed that the sun’s interior structure still holds the evidence of eating the planet.
This event left lasting chemical and structural “fingerprints” deep inside the star that help explain long-standing discrepancies in standard solar models, including the Sun’s unusual surface lithium depletion and internal sound-speed structure. Super-Earths are common occupants of other planetary systems.
Mutlu Yildiz, of Ege University, Turkey, said in a statement, “Our new study suggests that a planet several times more massive than Earth may have fallen into the young sun and left a lasting chemical imprint deep inside it.”
Researchers involved in the study used stellar-evolution code to test accretion histories, while finding that a single engulfment scenario simultaneously matches multiple independent helioseismic measurements.
“By modelling the sun’s evolution and comparing the results with precise observations of its interior, we find that the ingestion of a super-Earth could help explain long-standing differences between standard solar models and observations, including subtle changes in the sun’s internal structure and its depleted lithium abundance,” Yildiz said.
The findings supported the theories suggesting the cannibalism of sun while explaining the strange and unpredicted characteristics of the sun. This behaviour also suggests why we don’t have super-Earth while other planets may have it.
According to Yildiz, the paper asks whether the sun itself could still carry observable evidence that such an engulfment actually happened, and we believe it could.
“The next step is to see if these fingerprints can be independently detected.”
Researchers aim to look for independent verification of these predicted structural and chemical signatures using advanced helioseismic observations.
