Last year, scientists discovered a binary star system around 320 light years from Earth which they nicknamed Krios and Kronos. These two stars are more chemically different than any other pair known to humanity, so different that at first scientists couldn't believe they were actually binary.

PBS SpaceTime takes a look at what's going on here.

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The key difference between the stars is that Kronos would devour nearby planets. There's evidence that Kronos has devoured roughly 15 rocky planets. That's what explains its chemical difference—it's got unusually large amounts of metals like magnesium, aluminum, silicon, iron, chromium, and yttrium.

“All of the elements that would make up a rocky planet are exactly the elements that are enhanced on Kronos, and the volatile elements are not enhanced, so that provides a strong argument for a planet engulfment scenario," said Princeton researcher Adrian Price-Whelan at the time.

As SpaceTime points out, Prince-Whelan and her fellow scientists tested this theory by throwing 15 Earth-sized planets into a star. In a mathematical simulation, that is. The result was something that looked a whole lot like Kronos.

While stars power all life and existence as humanity can comprehend it, we still don't entirely understand them. That's why NASA is building the Parker Space Probe, which will fly into the Sun's atmosphere.

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