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Researchers from Princeton University have named the stars Kronos and Krios – the former is said to have feasted on up to 15 planets.
Semyeong Oh, the lead author on the new study, said: “All of the elements that would make up a rocky planet are exactly the elements that are enhanced on Kronos, and the volatile elements
are not enhanced, so that provides a strong argument for a planet engulfment scenario, instead of something else.
“Kronos has volatile elements suppressed, which makes it really weird in the general context of stellar abundance patterns.”
The name Kronos comes from Greek mythology after the titan devoured his own children.
The star pair are said to be a binary star system that orbit each other every 10,000 years.
Kronos’ high level of rock-forming materials were analysed by the researchers who calculated that up to 15 planets the size of Earth would have needed to be devoured to see such results.
The paper discloses that the lack of gas materials within the stars signify that gas planets were less likely targets for Kronos.
The metal substances found in the planet devourer consist of magnesium, aluminium, silicon, iron, chromium and yttrium while typical gasses are oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and potassium.
Miss Oh claimed that most stars with levels of metal like Kronos "have all the other elements enhanced at a similar level whereas Kronos has volatile elements suppressed, which makes it
really weird in the general context of stellar abundance patterns".
Adrian Price-Whelan, a co-author on the paper, added: “If you were to take Jupiter and throw it into a star, Jupiter also has this huge gaseous envelope, so you’d also enhance carbon and
nitrogen.
“To flip it around, you have to throw in a bunch of smaller planets.”
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The paper reveals a previous debate help between the pair of stars discussing whether the duo are in fact related – both are younger than the star in Earth’s solar system after coming in at
4billion years old.
Jessie Christiansen, an astronomer at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology who did not help with the study, stated that although no known star has
15 planets orbiting around it, she explored the idea that Kronos may be part of a multi-planet system.
She claimed: “I see no problem with there being more than 15 Earth masses of accretable material around a solar-type star.
“At the moment, we are still at the stage of piecing together different observations to determine how and when exoplanets form.
“It’s difficult to directly observe planet formation around young stars — they are typically shrouded in dust, and the stars themselves are very active, which makes it hard to disentangle
any signals from the planets.
“So we have to infer what we can from the limited information we have.
“If borne out, this new window onto the masses and compositions of the material in the early stages of planetary systems may provide crucial constraints for planet formation theories.”
Mr Price-Whelan added: “One of the common assumptions — well-motivated, but it is an assumption — that’s pervasive through galactic astronomy right now is that stars are born with chemical
abundances, and they then keep those abundances.
“This is an indication that, at least in some cases, that is catastrophically false.”
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