Scientists from MIT, Harvard and other research institutions describe in their publication in the journal “Nature” how they first observed a star to … swallow a planet.

Earth will suffer a similar fate in five billion years when the Sun is expected to be destroyed and burn up the inner planets of our solar system.

As a star exhausts its lifetime, it expands to a million times its original size, gobbling up any matter – and planets – in its path.

Scientists have observed signs of stars shortly before and shortly after the consumption of entire planets, but had never spotted a star during the act until now.

The planet’s death appears to have taken place in our own galaxy, about 12,000 light-years away, near the constellation of the Eagle.

Astronomers spotted an outburst of a star, which became more than 100 times brighter in just ten days, before quickly fading.

This white hot flash was followed by a cooler, longer lasting signal. This combination, the scientists concluded, could have been produced by only one event: a star engulfing a nearby planet.

The bright, hot glow was likely the last moments of a Jupiter-sized planet being pulled into the atmosphere of a dying star.

As the planet fell into the star’s core, the star’s outer layers were ejected and evolved into cold dust.