American astronomers have come up with new evidence for the existence of the very first planet outside our galaxy. So far, almost five thousand so-called exoplanets have been found, ie planets orbiting a star other than the Sun. Each of these previously discovered bodies is located in the spiral Milky Way galaxy, emphasizes the British station BBC.
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The new planet, which is initially estimated to be the size of Saturn, is the first planet outside the Milky Way. It is located in the Vortex Galaxy known as Messier 51 or M51, which was discovered in 1773 by Charles Messier. It is about 28 million light-years from the Milky Way.
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Behind the new discovery is Dr. Rosanne Di Stefan and her colleagues at the Harvard-Smithson Center for Astrophysics. In their experiment, the American team used the Chandra X-Ray X-ray observatory. This X-ray telescope, one of NASA’s largest projects, was built in 1999 by the American company TRW Space & Electronics Group.
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Astronomers used the so-called transit method to find the planet. This method involves detecting planets by observing regular shades of stellar glow. According to experts, they occur when the exoplanet passes its star in orbit at a viewing angle from Earth. The transit method is proving to be the most suitable and successful for identifying new cosmic bodies, and scientists have been using it for a long time.
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“The method we have developed and used is the only feasible method for discovering planets in other galaxies,” the British media quoted Stefan as saying.
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What do we know about the new planet?
The passage of the planet against the background of a neutron star took about 3 hours, during which the X-ray emission decreased to zero. Using this and other data, the US team found that the new object is the size of Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system. The new planet also orbits a neutron star or black hole at a distance about twice as large as Saturn from the Sun.
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However, astronomers admit that they will have to perform further experiments to verify their own findings. One of the main problems is that the potential planet has a large orbit, which means that it will pass in front of its binary star in 70 years at the earliest.
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“To confirm that it is a planet, we will probably have to wait decades before we see another transit.” he says project co-author Nia Imara of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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Therefore, it will not be possible to carry out further research in the near future, scientists say. The US team also expects other astronomers to join the new research. “We know this is a bold statement, so we expect other astronomers to look at it very carefully,” said Julia Berndtsson of Princeton University in New Jersey.
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