CLAIM: Scientists have warned that the “Earth will be swallowed by the sun.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. Scientists predicted that the Earth could eventually be swallowed by the sun after they reported in a study published in May the first observation of a star engulfing a planet. But they made clear that if the Earth does meet this fate, it won’t be for another 5 billion years.
THE FACTS: While the crux of this claim is true, some on social media are sharing the news without the crucial context that our world isn’t in danger of ending any time soon.
One Facebook post included an image of a planet burnt to a crisp with a caption that states: “Scientists Warn Earth Will Be Swallowed By The Sun.” It further explains that “they’ve sent a warning after watching a planet get swallowed up by a star.”
The post also directs readers to its comment section, which links to an article about the study on another website. This article makes clear that although scientists have indeed predicted that the Earth could eventually be swallowed by the sun, it wouldn’t happen for billions of years.
Scientists from institutions including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, made such a prediction after publishing a study in May that recounted how they observed a star engulfing a gas giant planet estimated to be the size of Jupiter — the first time such a phenomenon has been witnessed.
While announcing their study, which was published in the journal Nature, the astronomers noted that the Earth will likely suffer a similar fate, the AP reported at the time. Once the sun burns out in about 5 billion years, it could take the solar system’s inner planets.
The phenomenon observed in the study happened between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago near the Aquila constellation when the hungry star was around 10 billion years old, the AP reported. As the planet was engulfed, there was a swift hot outburst of light, followed by a long-lasting stream of dust shining brightly in cold infrared energy.
MIT researcher Kishalay De spotted the luminous outburst in 2020 while reviewing sky scans taken by Caltech’s Palomar Observatory. It took another year for astronomers to make sense of this phenomenon, of which there were previously only signs pointing to such a possibility.
With this discovery, scientists have a better understanding of our solar system and how a star engulfs a planet. They expect that such a phenomenon could happen to other planets that orbit other stars, in addition to our own.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
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