Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A team of astronomers, led by Brooke Kotten of the University of Michigan, has shown that TOI-5882—a sun-like star located some 1,300 light-years away—has likely eaten one of its planets.
Although a star might seem like the ultimate incinerator for destroying evidence, the team still found telling clues in the chemical composition of TOI-5882, specifically in its unusually high lithium concentration.
“You are what you eat, right?” said Kotten, a graduate student researcher in the U-M Department of Astronomy and lead author of the new report in The Astrophysical Journal. “We know that there’s much more lithium in planetary material than there is in stars. So if a star eats a planet, it’s going to take on a bunch of lithium.”
The research was supported, in part, by federal funding from NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
When a star consumes a planet, astronomers call it engulfment. Astronomically speaking, the process is incredibly fast, taking weeks or even days. That means astronomers can’t rely on seeing an engulfment event as it happens, Kotten said, which is why it’s important to develop methods that can help researchers study engulfment events after the fact.
A team of astronomers, led by Brooke Kotten of the University of Michigan, has shown that TOI-5882—a sun-like star located some 1,300 light-years away—has likely eaten one of its planets.
Although a star might seem like the ultimate incinerator for destroying evidence, the team still found telling clues in the chemical composition of TOI-5882, specifically in its unusually high lithium concentration.
“You are what you eat, right?” said Kotten, a graduate student researcher in the U-M Department of Astronomy and lead author of the new report in The Astrophysical Journal. “We know that there’s much more lithium in planetary material than there is in stars. So if a star eats a planet, it’s going to take on a bunch of lithium.”
The research was supported, in part, by federal funding from NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
When a star consumes a planet, astronomers call it engulfment. Astronomically speaking, the process is incredibly fast, taking weeks or even days. That means astronomers can’t rely on seeing an engulfment event as it happens, Kotten said, which is why it’s important to develop methods that can help researchers study engulfment events after the fact.
