A new study proposes that the sun may have swallowed a planet similar in size to a "super-Earth" early in its history, potentially leaving behind chemical traces inside its core. Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the research suggests that such an event could explain some unexplained features of the sun, including its internal structure and the unusually low levels of lithium on its surface. Mutlu Yildiz, a professor at Ege University in Turkey, led the study, which used computer models to simulate the sun’s evolution and compare it with precise observations of its interior. The findings suggest that the ingestion of a super-Earth—up to 10 times the mass of Earth—could account for discrepancies between traditional solar models and real-world measurements. The study addresses two long-standing mysteries about the sun. First, standard models struggle to match certain helioseismic observations, which use sound waves to probe the sun's interior. These observations reveal inconsistencies in the sun's internal structure, particularly near the convection zone—the layer where heat is transported by moving material. Second, the sun has far less lithium than expected, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for years. Yildiz and her team propose that these issues might be linked to the sun's early history, when it was surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. In such environments, material can move between the disk and the star, potentially allowing planets to be drawn into the sun. To test their idea, the researchers used the MESA stellar-evolution code, a widely used tool for modeling how stars evolve over time. They explored different scenarios of how material might have been added to the sun and compared the results with observational data. Their best-fit model suggests that a super-Earth, about five to 10 times more massive than Earth, could have been swallowed by the young sun. This scenario matches several independent measurements of the sun, including its internal structure and its low lithium content. While the study cannot prove definitively that a planet was consumed, it suggests that if scientists can detect the predicted chemical and structural changes in the sun using helioseismology or other methods, it would strongly support the idea. Astronomers have long noted that many other stars have large super-Earths orbiting close to them, yet our solar system appears to lack such planets. Earlier research suggested that one or more super-Earths may have formed near Mercury’s orbit and then migrated inward, possibly ending up in the sun. However, those studies did not confirm that such a planet was actually swallowed. Yildiz emphasizes that the next step is to look for independent evidence of these chemical fingerprints, which could help confirm whether the sun indeed consumed a planet billions of years ago.