At least 1 in 12 stars may have eaten neighboring planets

An artist's concept of a methane-free planet being eclipsed by its star.

A new study published in Nature indicates at least one in a dozen stars have ingested or absorbed a planet at some point in the past. Researchers examined the chemical composition of 91 pairs of twin stars. Because the stars formed together, they should have identical compositions. But when a star ingests planetary material, such as iron from a rocky body, its chemistry alters.

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