A Star's Breakfast or Lunch or Supper

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Cosmology, Models, Astrophysics, Earth & Space Science, Solar System

Ed Hessler

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) features a short animation (36 s) and explanation of what was seen directly in 2020, a Sun-like star eating one of its own planets.

This is a preview of Planet Earth's likely future an event that will happen in about eight billion years from now plus or minus a few million years. Long before then, the planet will be uninhabitable. Here are some possibilities but the ultimate future is depicted in the animation based on current evidence and theory.