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The new Saturn – sized planet Messier 51, discovered by NASA’s Lunar X – ray telescope, is part of the galaxy. It is about 28 million light years away. Milk way. The results mentioned in a study on this topic are that the passing of a planet in front of a star blocks some of the star’s light and creates a characteristic decrease in brightness that can be detected by telescopes.
The future “hunters” of the planets
This common technique has already been used to detect thousands of exoplanets. Drs. Rosenne di Stefano and colleagues watched. These objects usually contain a neutron star or black hole, which pulls gas from a closely orbiting star. An object near a neutron star or black hole will heat up and glow at X-ray wavelengths.
Since the area that produces bright X-rays is small, a Planet Passing in front of it can block most or all of the rays, making it easier to observe traffic. Team members used this technique to detect the exoplanet in a binary system called M51-ULS-1.
Dr. De Stefano of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astronomical Center in Cambridge told the BBC News that “the method we have developed and used is the only way we can operate today to detect planetary systems in other galaxies.”
“This is a unique method, especially suitable for locating planets orbiting X-ray tracks at any distance, from which we can measure a curve of light,” he added.
The first planet to be discovered outside the Milky Way
This binary contains a black hole or neutron star that orbits a star that is 20 times heavier than the Sun. The neutron star is the collapsing center of what was once a massive star.
The traffic lasted about three hours, during which time the X-ray emission was reduced to zero. Based on this and more information, astronomers estimate that the discovered planet is about the size of Saturn and that the neutron star or black hole orbits twice as far from Saturn as the Sun.
Dr. de Stefano said the most successful techniques in detecting extraterrestrials in the Milky Way are “collapse” when observing other galaxies. This is due to the long distance that reduces the amount of light reaching the telescope. This feature is closely related to the fact that many objects are compressed at short intervals (as seen from Earth), making it difficult to detect individual stars.
Regarding X-rays, Dr. de Stefano said, “There are only a few dozen sources scattered throughout the galaxy, so we can solve them. In addition, their subgroup is so bright in X-rays that we can measure their light curves.
Finally, the largest X-ray emission comes from a small area that can be significantly or (as in our case) completely blocked by a passing planet. The researchers agree that additional data is needed to verify their interpretation.
Sick can not read quickly
One of the challenges is the big orbit Celestial body The discovery means that about 70 years do not pass before its binary partner, which cancels out any attempt to carry out short-term tracking. Another possible explanation given by astronomers is that the darkness was caused by a cloud of gas and dust moving in front of the X-ray source.
However, they believe this is not possible because the properties of the phenomenon do not match the properties of the gas cloud. “We know we’re releasing an exciting and bold statement, so we expect other astronomers to look at it very carefully,” said Julia Berndsson, associate professor at Princeton University in New Jersey.
The new generation of optical and infrared telescopes will not be able to compensate for problems such as accumulation and darkening, so observations at X-ray wavelengths will be an important method for detecting planets in other galaxies, Dr. de Stefano said. However, he said a method called microlensing would ensure the identification of extracellular planets. The study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
