SAN FRANCISCO, iNews.id – Hunt exoplanet wandering beyond the Milky Way. Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected what may be the first signs of a planet in another galaxy.
The team saw a decrease in the brightness of X-rays that hinted at a planet transiting in front of a star in the galaxy Messier 51, which is 28 million light-years away. In context, all candidate exoplanets in the Milky Way are no more than 3,000 light-years from Earth.
The nature of the stars makes this feat possible. Because the researchers had to focus on X-ray bright binary systems where the bright region was relatively small, the transits were much easier to spot.
Conventional detection of nearby stars requires a much more sensitive detection of light. Because, planets may only block a small amount of light from certain stars.
The planet itself is believed to be as big as Saturn. However, it will orbit its host, a star 20 times the mass of the Sun and a black hole or neutron star at twice the distance, as quoted from Engadget, Monday (1/11/20210).
Editor: Dini Listiyani
