Scientists have uncovered evidence of a star that has engulfed and destroyed a planet as it was transitioning into its red giant sequence. Lithium, which is normally very easily destroyed in stars, was found in abnormally high abundances in the advanced age star. Detection of Lithium in the stellar composition of such an old star exists as evidence that the swelling of the aging star had engulfed the orbit of a nearby planet and triggered the production of Lithium from the planet's material when it spiraled into the giant.
More evidence is the peculiar orbit of a planet 1.6X more massive than Jupiter orbiting the red giant in a highly eccentric orbit. The orbit is similar to that of Mars at its nearest approach, with a much greater Aphelion. High eccentricity orbits are rarely found around developed star systems, and this planet's orbit is the most elliptical one detected.
Orbits with such peculiarity are generally the result of gravitational attractions between planets, and so the alteration of the destroyed planet's orbit into the growing star had disrupted the orbit of the surviving planet and slingshot it out into its strange, highly eccentric orbit.
Earth is believed to suffer a fate similar to that of the missing planet as the Sun nears the end of its main sequence and swells. Perhaps the other planets, if not destroyed as well, will be strangely affected by the missing inner planets and render our Solar System unrecognizable.
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/08/1st-ever-death-star-discovered-weekend-feature.html
4 points.
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