Thanks to NASA's powerful Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope, astronomers may have just spotted evidence that the first exoplanet orbits an extra-Galactic star. This tantalizing discovery was made in the M51 spiral galaxy more than 29 million light-years away. The results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy, and so far astronomers have only been able to detect so-called exoplanets in our Galaxy.
Exoplanets are alien worlds that revolve around stars that orbit far beyond our solar system. Almost all of these planets were discovered within 3,000 light-years of Earth. The latest discoveries, if confirmed, would open the door for scientists to photograph, detect, and study the mysteries of the exoplanet universe at previously unimaginable distances.
Could this latest discovery help uncover the unsolved mysteries of the universe? The possibility of a space region with advanced intelligent life outside the Milky Way may be the best place to look for an alien civilization, after all, the vast universe and almost "infinite time" and potentially habitable planets surrounding neighboring stars are relatively safe, so it can potentially give birth to extraterrestrial life, which means that life has plenty of time to evolve more complex, and even form a higher level of intelligent civilization.
Rozan Di Stefano of the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Research at Harvard University in the United States said: "We are trying to find planetary candidates on X-ray wavelengths in order to open up a whole new field to find other worlds, a strategy that makes it possible to find them in other galaxies." "So far, astronomers have found and confirmed more than 4,000 exoplanets near our Milky Way.
In a universe with an infinite number of galaxies and planets, this may seem trivial. However, the first exoplanet ever created was not confirmed until 1992, and technological advances have come a long way since then. The best way to search for exoplanets, like the latest discoveries, is to try to find their border crossings.
As planets or other objects pass in front of stars, powerful space telescopes may be able to detect small drops in their brightness. NASA's TESS (Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the Kepler telescope have used this technology with great success, but there are some limitations. For example, transiting planets need to pass through at an angle visible from Earth.
Professor Di Stefano and colleagues took the transit technology from NASA's Chandra telescope and recorded a drop in X-rays received from so-called X-ray binary stars, rather than brightness. In these systems, neutron stars or black holes are sucking up gas from nearby companion stars. In this particular case, astronomers named the binary system M51-ULS-1. When the material is sucked in, it overheats and emits a lot of X-ray radiation.
NASA has a breakthrough discovery? Telescopes discover possible extraterrestrial worlds outside the Milky Way. The area that emits X-rays is rather small, and the planets passing in front of it are likely to block most, if not all, of them. This possibility could revolutionize the way astronomers search for extragalactic planets. However, more data needs to be collected before the discovery of M51-ULS-1 can be confirmed.
Unfortunately, due to its long orbit, the candidate planet will not transit again for about 70 years. Study co-author Nia Imara of the University of California, Santa Cruz, said: "Unfortunately, to confirm that we are seeing a planet, we may have to wait decades to see another transit. And, due to the uncertainty of how long the orbit will take, we don't know the exact time. ”
Professor Julia Berndtsson of Princeton University in New Jersey added: "We know we are making an exciting and bold statement, so we hope other astronomers will look at it very carefully. I think we have a strong argument that this process is how science works. One possible explanation for excluding exoplanet discoveries is that gas and dust pass in front of X-ray sources. However, the data to date are more consistent with the confirmation of the existence of exoplanets.