Did the Earth once have a larger cousin that was devoured by the Sun? And more importantly: would we have any way of knowing it did?
A team of astronomers believe that the answer to both of those questions is “yes.”
Like investigators at a crime scene, a team of researchers say they’ve discovered a method to dust for “fingerprints” in the Sun to find strong evidence of planetary filicide in its past.
Their resulting study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggests that the devoured rocky world — which is believed to have been a so-called super-Earth several times more massive than our own — may have left a “lasting chemical imprint deep inside” our star, according to coauthor Mutlu Yildiz.
