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Old 14-10-2017, 12:34 PM
gary
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Mt. Kuring-Gai
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Did star HD 240430 devour its own rocky planetary children?

In a September 19 2017 paper submitted to arxiv.org, Semyeong Oh et. al.
of Princeton reports on observations of a pair of stars, HD 240430 and HD 240429.

There is a metallicity difference between the two, in fact the largest
metallicity difference found in a wide binary pair yet. The more metal
rich of the two, HD 240430, also has higher concentrations of lithium.

The authors speculate whether HD 240430 may have devoured
the equivalent of 15 Earth-mass rocky planets.

They have nicknamed it 'Kronos' after the titan of Greek mythology
who devoured his own children.

Its companion they have nicknamed Krios, the brother of Kronos,
who was the more benign of the two siblings.

Paper here :-
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.05344.pdf

Article in New Scientist here :-
https://www.newscientist.com/article...tary-children/
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