Webb telescope documents alien planet’s death plunge into a star

In May 2020, astronomers for the first time observed a planet getting swallowed by its host star. Based on the data at the time, they believed the planet met its doom as the star puffed up late in its lifespan, becoming what is called a red giant.

New observations by the James Webb Space Telescope – sort of a postmortem examination – indicate that the planet’s demise happened differently than