00:00In around seven and a half billion years, our Sun will become a red giant and drastically expand
00:09in size. That means it will eventually consume Earth. However, experts say there could be other
00:14ways our solar system central star might end up gobbling up our planet. Recent stellar surveys
00:19of nearby systems have revealed that sometimes a planet will develop what they refer to as a wobble.
00:25This instability is not well understood, but experts posit planets between a star and a
00:29super-Earth-sized rocky world might be the cause. This gravitational tug-of-war between a star and
00:34a high-mass planet could cause the steady spin of a planet caught in the middle to deteriorate and
00:39wobble, eventually pulling the smaller planet out of orbit and into its host star. That theory would
00:44mean we have nothing to worry about in that regard. However, the number of instances in which a star
00:49in each of the surveyed systems has eaten a planet recently is rather concerning and may point to a
00:54more spontaneous cause. The study revealed that one in 12 nearby systems had a planet that was
00:59recently gobbled up, meaning either the stability in our solar system might be pretty rare,
01:03or there's some other sinister physics at work we're not yet aware of.
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