Signs Of First Planet Outside Our Galaxy Found

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Signs Of First Planet Outside Our Galaxy Found
26 Oct 2021
4 min read

News Synopsis

Astronomers have uncovered evidence of what may be the first planet discovered outside of our galaxy. So far, over 5,000 "exoplanets" - worlds orbiting stars beyond our Sun have been discovered, but they're all within the Milky Way galaxy. The Chandra X-Ray Telescope identified a putative planet signal in the Messier 51 galaxy.

The Milky Way is 28 million light-years away from this star. A black hole or neutron star orbits a companion star with a mass of nearly 20 times that of the Sun in this pair. The candidate planet would be around the size of Saturn and orbit the neutron star or black hole at about twice the distance Saturn orbits the Sun, according to astronomers. More data is needed to confirm the researchers' interpretation, they admit.

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