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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Center of Astrophysics and Harvard & Smithsonian may have detected the first signs of a planet outside of our galaxy on Monday.
According to a statement from the CfA, they used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to make the discovery. Scientists said that the telescope will open a new window in the search for exoplanets, or planets located outside of our Solar System. Until now, scientists have identified most exoplanets to be within 3,000 light-years from Earth. This new discovery would be positioned 28 million light-years away, thousands of times farther than those found in the Milky Way.
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Rosanne Di Stefano of the CfA in Cambridge said, "We are trying to open up a whole new arena for finding other worlds by searching for planet candidates at X-ray wavelengths, a strategy that makes it possible to discover them in other galaxies." Di Stefano led the study, and published her findings in Nature Astronomy
The CfA posted an animation video on YouTube, depicting the possible planet detection in the Whirlpool Galaxy.
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