Why do some binary stars have weirdly different chemistries? This paper investigates whether swallowing a planet might explain it. Check out the latest episode of the @starxiv.bsky.social for more! 🔭☄️🧪
Michelle Collins
Nicole's first paper asks if a swallowed planet explains why one star in the HD 81809 binary is far more iron-rich than its twin. The problem: any planet big enough to fix the iron adds too much lithium. The iron needs ~50 Earth-masses to match, the lithium needs under 6. arxiv.org/abs/2605.31060 ☄️🔭
