A wild new study claims that Jupiter may have gobbled up nearby planets to become the space behemoth that it is today. Now, Jupiter is not the only body out there that is known to have engaged in some cosmic cannibalism.

A study published earlier this year detailed a phenomenon called “stellar vampirism” in which a larger star sucked the atmosphere out of a neighboring star in the system named HR 6819. Also known as blue stragglers, a few such stars exist at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy as well. Galaxies are also known to engage in vampirism when they can’t find enough hydrogen to support star formation in their own cradle.

However, planets such as Jupiter present a unique challenge. Until now, the prevailing notion was that Jupiter's mass primarily originates from external pebbles that coalesce to form its solid core. Yet, a critical drawback to this hypothesis emerges when considering that, once the outer gaseous shell of the planet becomes sufficiently dense, it would establish a pressure barrier preventing additional pebbles from accumulating on the planet's solid surface.

Consequently, the planet would be expected to be significantly smaller in size. Contrary to this expectation, the concentration of heavy metals in the solid bodies that constitute the raw material for planet formation, particularly in Jupiter's rocky core, is notably higher. This discrepancy casts uncertainty on the pebble formation theory.