A star located approximately 1,300 light-years from Earth appears to have consumed one of its planets and may be preparing to engulf another, according to recent research published in The Astrophysical Journal. The star, designated TOI-5882, shows chemical signatures consistent with planetary material in its atmosphere, suggesting it has already absorbed a planetary body.

This process, known as planetary engulfment, occurs when a star expands and incorporates nearby planets into its outer layers, gradually breaking them down into elemental components. Such events are expected to happen within our own solar system in the distant future, when the sun evolves into a red giant and consumes inner planets like Mercury and Venus.

TOI-5882, which has about 30 percent more mass than the sun, hosts a close-orbiting brown dwarf known as TOI-5882-b. Weighing approximately 22 times the mass of Jupiter, this brown dwarf completes an orbit around the star roughly every week. Its proximity suggests that it too will eventually be swallowed by the star. Researchers believe the gravitational influence from this massive companion may have destabilized the orbit of a neighboring planet, sending it into the star’s outer layers where it was destroyed.

In examining the star’s light spectrum, scientists detected elevated levels of lithium, an element commonly found in planetary bodies but less abundant in stars. The presence of lithium, along with other elements typically associated with planets, provides compelling evidence that TOI-5882 has already digested a planet.

Melinda Soares-Furtado, assistant professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of the studies, noted that TOI-5882 lies at an evolutionary phase where alternative explanations for the lithium excess are unlikely. This case adds to a growing number of stars exhibiting chemical signs consistent with planetary engulfment.

While the fate of TOI-5882’s brown dwarf companion is sealed, the timing of its consumption remains under investigation. It may be engulfed by the star sooner than previously anticipated, marking a second stage in this system’s ongoing process of inward migration and stellar ingestion. The research sheds light on the dynamics of close-in planetary and sub-stellar objects and provides a valuable analog to understand the future of planets orbiting aging stars.