system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What would a collision between a star and a planet look like?

In the event that an Sol-sized star and an Earth-sized planet crashed directly into each other, what would the resulting impact look like?  

* Would it appear that the star simply absorbed the planet?
* Would the impact cause a visible (from 1 au) explosion?
* Would there be any long-lasting change to the star?

I assume a head-on collision to avoid complications of the planet breaking up due to tidal forces in orbit, turning into a ring, etc -  This planet is simply plowing into the star.
gpt
Not so sure about a head on collision but when a planet gets close enough to a star the tidal forces rip it apart (and melt/vaporise it). The response of the star is to become brighter for a period of time. According to the paper published to explain the secular dimming of the much popularised star KIC 8462852 (you know the one they couldnt explain its dimming and the media went wild saying it was aliens... that one!) the duration of increased brightness depends on planet size. Terrestrial sized planets increase luminosity for a period of the order of tens of years. Jupiter sized planets of the order of thousands of years. 

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You would definitely see the planet being destroyed not only within the system but quite a distance out. Consider that we can see comets burning up in daylight and they are significantly smaller than a planet! 

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As a side KIC 8462852 is thought to have consumed an earth sized planet 30 years ago (ignoring time delay of light arriving here!). So we only just missed that as that is roughly how long ago it was 1st observed! Also this system is a good indication that planet star collisions are a lot more common than we would have thought as it is thought that multiple planets ended up colliding with that star over the last few thousand years.