The discovery of Nasa happened thanks to X-rays in the galaxy Messer51: for the first time identified a planet outside the Milky Way
That there is life outside the Earth is uncertain, but that there are infinite worlds and infinite galaxies beyond the Milky Way agrees all scientists: today there is one more proof. For the first time, in fact, NASA has identified the traces of an extra-galactic planet, which is located outside of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
A very intriguing discovery, which gives a further boost to the search for so-called exoplanets: so far they had been identified about 5000, but all within the Milky Way.
The new planet
To the registry is still unnamed, but the new planet "extra-galactic" we know that it is located in the galaxy Messier 51, also known as "Vortex" for its characteristic shape. Scientists have calculated that it is located 28 million light years from Earth. The discovery was made thanks to Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope, which noticed the decrease in the brightness of a star in the Vortex galaxy, due to the passage of a large space object: a planet, in fact. "Unfortunately, we will not be able to confirm the discovery for decades," explains Rosanne Di Stefano, the scientist in charge of the project: in fact, it will take at least 70 years for a new passage of the planet in front of its star.
X-ray technology
In the Messier51 galaxy there is a system similar to the solar one, which is called M51-ULS-1. At its center is a black hole or neutron star orbiting a companion star 20 times larger than the sun. This system produces X-rays, which for about three hours faded until they disappeared. It could not have been "the fault" of a cloud of space debris, but of a planet about the size of Saturn.
Now science will have to run its course, and try to verify with the powerful instruments it has at its disposal this exciting new theory, which takes space research to a level never before reached.