
X-ray data may be first evidence of a star devouring a planet
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-x-ray-evidence-star-devouring-planet.html
Now physicists from MIT and elsewhere have observed the star, named RW Aur A, using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. They've found evidence for what may have caused its most recent dimming event: a collision of two infant planetary bodies, which produced in its aftermath a dense cloud of gas and dust. As this planetary debris fell into the star, it generated a thick veil, temporarily obscuring the star's light.
"Computer simulations have long predicted that planets can fall into a young star, but we have never before observed that," says Hans Moritz Guenther, a research scientist in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, who led the study. "If our interpretation of the data is correct, this would be the first time that we directly observe a young star devouring a planet or planets."