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When a star swallows a planet

They add that many of them are doomed to be gobbled up by their parent stars.

Hubble Space Telescope astronomer Mario Livio detected evidence that some giant stars once possessed giant planets that have been swallowed up. The devouring stars radiate excessive amounts of infra-red light, spin rapidly, and contain a higher than expected amount of the element lithium.

About 8% of the stars in our galaxy display these characteristics, according to Dr Livio. This is consistent with estimates of close-orbiting giant planets.

An ageing solar-type star will expand to a red giant and in the process will engulf any close-orbiting planets. If the planets are like Jupiter they will have a profound effect on the red giant's evolution.

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