An exoplanet has been discovered in another galaxy

Thousands of exoplanets have already been discovered, most of them located within 400 light years of our solar system. But the discovery of one located in another galaxy is an extremely rare find …

Astronomers find most of the exoplanets in our galaxy transit method. When a planet passes between us and its star, the starlight dims a little because of that The planet blocks part of the light. NASA also plans to try a new method of observation. However, it is extremely difficult to apply this technique to stars so far away, mired in the midst of billions of others. This time, Instead of analyzing visible light, the scientists decided to monitor X-rays.

So a team of astronomers used data from the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton spacecraft, Who watches the x-rays?, to characterize some stars individually within a distant galaxy. This method simplifies the distinction and sorting of stars to be observed., Bright objects are less numerous in X-rays than in visible light. Thus, the scientists have just published the results of their study in the journal Nature Astronomy. This current evidence on Existence of a planet the size of Saturn revolves around a star In the Galaxy Tourbillon.

An exoplanet inside another galaxy: its existence remains to be proven

The team studied a certain type of star. These are binary systems, emitting huge amounts of X-rays. “X-ray binaries could be as well .” says Rosanne Di Stefano, one of the scientists responsible for the study Great places to search for planets Because even though it’s a million times brighter than our Sun, the X-rays come from a Too small space. In fact, the source we studied is smaller than Jupiter, so a passing planet could happen Completely block out the light From binary X-rays”.

However, this discovery remains to be considered. In fact, Researchers must first rule out other explanations Before we conclude that it is a real planet. X-ray sources can be variable. It could have been something other than a planet, Like a brown dwarf or a red dwarf. But the system is too small for these interpretations, and the transient object was too big to prove the validity of this hypothesis.

Read also> We discovered the first exoplanet with tectonic activity

Source : Today’s world