Extragalactic planet

An extragalactic planet, also known as an extragalactic exoplanet, is a planet orbiting a star located outside the Milky Way. Due to the huge distance to those worlds, they would be very hard to detect, with no confirmed examples so far. The most distant known planets are SWEEPS-11 and SWEEPS-04, located in Sagittarius, approximately 27,710 light-years from the Sun, while the Milky Way is between 100,000–180,000 light years in diameter. This means that even galactic planets located further than that distance have not been detected.

HIP 13044 b

A planet with a mass of at least 1.25 times that of Jupiter had been potentially discovered by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) orbiting a star of extragalactic origin, even though the star now finds itself within our own galaxy. HIP 13044 is a star about 2,000 light years away in the southern constellation of Fornax,[1] part of the Helmi stream of stars, a leftover remnant of a small galaxy that collided with and was absorbed by the Milky Way over 6 billion years ago.[2] If real, the Jupiter-like planet would have been particularly interesting, orbiting a star nearing the end of its life and seemingly about to be engulfed by it, potentially providing an observational model for the fate of our own planetary system in the distant future.

Subsequent analysis of the data revealed problems with the potential planetary detection: for example an erroneous barycentric correction had been applied (the same error had also led to claims of planets around HIP 11952 that were subsequently refuted). After applying the corrections, there is no evidence for a planet orbiting the star.[3]

Twin Quasar-related planet

A microlensing event in the Twin Quasar gravitational lensing system was observed in 1996, by R. E. Schild, in the "A" lobe of the lensed quasar. It is predicted that a 3-Earth-mass planet in the lensing galaxy, YGKOW G1, caused the event. This was the first extragalactic planet candidate announced. This, however, is not a repeatable observation, as it was a one-time chance alignment. This predicted planet lies 4 billion light years away.[4][5]

Andromeda galaxy planets

A team of scientists has used gravitational microlensing to come up with a tentative detection of an extragalactic exoplanet in Andromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbor. The lensing pattern fits a star with a smaller companion weighing just 6 or 7 times the mass of Jupiter. This suspected planet is the first announced in the Andromeda Galaxy.[6][7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Planet from another galaxy discovered". ESO Press Release. 18 November 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  2. ↑ Klement, R.; Setiawan, J.; Thomas Henning; Hans-Walter Rix; Boyke Rochau; Jens Rodmann; Tim Schulze-Hartung; MPIA Heidelberg; ESTEC (2011). "The visitor from an ancient galaxy: A planetary companion around an old, metal-poor red horizontal branch star". The Astrophysics of Planetary Systems: Formation, Structure, and Dynamical Evolution. IAU Symposium. 276. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. pp. 121–125. arXiv:1011.4938Freely accessible. Bibcode:2011IAUS..276..121K. doi:10.1017/S1743921311020059.
  3. ↑ Jones, M. I.; Jenkins, J. S. (2014). "No evidence of the planet orbiting the extremely metal-poor extragalactic star HIP 13044". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 562: id.A129. arXiv:1401.0517Freely accessible. Bibcode:2014A&A...562A.129J. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322132.
  4. ↑ New Scientist (issue 2037), Do alien worlds throng faraway galaxy? Govert Schilling 06 July 1996
  5. ↑ Extrasolar Visions, "The Q0957+561 Planet" (accessed 1 September 2009)
  6. ↑ Thaindian News, First extragalactic exoplanet may have been found by gravitational microlensing, 11 June 2009
  7. ↑ New Scientist, First extragalactic exoplanet may have been found, 10 June 2009
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