28/05/2026
Researchers led by a Keele scientist have found evidence of red dwarf stars completely engulfing their surrounding planets; a phenomenon which has been predicted but never conclusively supported.
Led by astrophysicist Professor Robin Jeffries, the team studied young star clusters using data from the Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic (GES) survey and found a small number of red dwarf stars with high lithium content, which was unexpected as red dwarf stars should not have any lithium at all.
Red dwarfs are lower mass, cooler counterparts of the Sun. However, their interiors are very hot and turbulent, so much so that all their lithium content, originally present in the material they were born from, should be rapidly consumed in nuclear fusion reactions.
Because of this, there have been previous predictions that finding the presence of lithium in their atmospheres could signpost the engulfment of still lithium-rich material accreted from a surrounding planetary system.
Professor Robin Jeffries from Keele University, who led the research, said: “Because these low-mass stars should have depleted all their lithium, the addition of even a trace from their forming planetary systems is readily seen – like throwing paint onto a completely blank canvas.”
Photo: Credit NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI).
