Like Earth, most planetary bodies circle their star in stable, detached orbits. These companionable systems can suddenly change when a planet comes too close to its star. In such a close encounter, a star can pull the planet in and swallow it whole. Across the galaxy, astronomers have seen plenty of stable, detached planetary systems. They have also observed a handful of stars quickly engulfing their planet. Now, for the first time, scientists have spotted a system that is striking a curious balance between the two extremes. And it's revealing a new way that stars can interact with planetary companions. In a paper appearing today in Nature Astronomy, scientists at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a star leisurely snacking on a closely orbiting brown dwarf ' a planet-like object that is more massive than a planet yet not quite as big as a star. The new system, named ZTF J0440+2325, is within the Milky Way galaxy, roughly 300 light years from Earth, and represents the first...
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