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Stars May Be Eating 'Hot Jupiters'
By Kenneth Silber
Staff Writer
posted: 07:01 pm ET
21 October 1999
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stars_planetsGiant gas planets in close orbits around stars -- "hot Jupiters" -- may commonly end up as meals of their parent suns, according to University of Washington astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez. Observations by Gonzalez and collaborators indicate that stars orbited by hot Jupiters contain higher than average levels of "metals" (defined by astronomers as any element heavier than hydrogen or helium). The latest such observations will be reported by Gonzalez and colleague Chris Laws in the January issue of Astronomical Journal. Such metals, Gonzalez believes, are at least partly the result of planets moving close to the stars and getting absorbed. However, Gonzalez acknowledges an alternative possibility -- that the elements were present in the stars from the outset, a remainder of the interstellar clouds from which the stars formed. "Everybody now agrees pretty much on the data," says Gonzalez. "The big debate now is on interpretation." He hopes the issue will be resolved by observations of pairs of stars where one has planets and the other does not. Since such stars would have originated from the same cloud, differences in composition would be attributable to their interaction with planets. The outcome will affect another debate in which Gonzalez has been prominent. In recent years, he has argued that conditions needed for life are rarer in the universe than many astronomers think. For example, he notes, many planets may be located in the galaxy's spiral arms, where they would be subjected to frequent supernova explosions and comet impacts. If stars are frequently swallowing planets, Gonzalez points out, this too would be a reason not to expect abundant life throughout the universe.
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