For the first time in history, astronomers believe they have discovered signs of a planet outside our galaxy. According to the publication of the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, a possible planet the size of Saturn is located in the galaxy Messier 51, about 28 million light-years from the Milky Way.
Also, according to the publication, technique used to discover a new planet was based on so-called transits and could significantly expand the search for so-called extragalactic exoplanets.
Transits occur when a planet passes in front of a star and blocks some of the light. Thousands of planets have been discovered using this technique in recent years.
“It’s always fun when you find something that is the first of its kind,” researcher Rosanna Di Stefano, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told NBC.
“When we started finding planets locally, it made sense to have planets in other galaxies, but it’s humiliating and really exciting.”
Opening
The first exoplanets were discovered in the 1990s and required a combination of sophisticated detection methods. However, since then the mission NASA such as the Kepler Space Telescope and the passing exoplanet exploration satellite have discovered more new planets in the galaxy.
More than 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered and confirmed, but so far they have all been in the Milky Way. Most are also less than 3,000 light-years from Earth. If confirmed, a planet in the Whirlpool Galaxy would be thousands of times farther away than any other identified alien planet.
The study by Harvard and Smithsonian astronomer Roseanne Di Stefano still contains many uncertainties. However, if the calculations are correct, the new planet will cross the star again only after 70 years, that is, it will only be seen again in 2090 to confirm its existence.
