Did the sun swallow a planet early in its history?

Scientists theorize that our sun may have consumed a super-Earth-sized planet billions of years ago. The orbit of this doomed planet could have resembled a blue path as it spiraled inward. Researchers published their findings in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on September 10, 2026.

The early days of solar system formation were chaotic, with planetesimals colliding and clumping together to form planets, or flying apart. Some early solar system motions likely involved material spiraling into the sun. On September 10, 2026, researchers proposed that a super-Earth-sized planet might have fallen into our sun billions of years ago, potentially leaving a chemical fingerprint within it.

Lead author Mutlu Yildiz of Ege University in Turkey explained that their study suggests a planet several times more massive than Earth could have fallen into the young sun, leaving a lasting chemical imprint. As the planet was pulled into the sun's environs, it may have survived being mostly intact and lost little mass while merging with the sun. Therefore, the planet might have left behind "fingerprints" before the sun completely consumed it.

Solar researchers have long puzzled over the sun's lack of lithium on its surface and the inability of their models to accurately reflect all helioseismic observations. Yildiz suggested that the ingestion of a super-Earth could help explain these issues, as modeling their solar evolution and comparing it to precise observations of its interior revealed potential solutions to these discrepancies, including subtle changes in the sun's internal structure and its depleted lithium abundance.