Rosanne Di Stefano of the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Massachusetts, USA, used the Chandra Space Telescope. Observe X-rays from X-ray bright binary objects produced by neutron stars or black holes attracting mass from neighboring stars. When matter falls under gravity and it becomes extremely hot. thus emitting light in the X-ray range.
in the case of a planet passing in front of that star The light may be reduced by a fraction of the total light. This is because the X-ray source is very small. (Neutron stars are only 14 km in size, while black holes may be even smaller). Thus, almost all of the emitted X-rays can be obscured. This extreme difference from the observed light allows us to observe very distant exoplanets.
Using this method, the research team observed the M51-ULS-1 binary star system in galaxy M51. The binary star system has a black hole or neutron star orbiting a companion star 20 times the mass of our sun. It was found that during the transition The X-ray emissions were completely obscured over the course of three hours, meaning that the planet orbiting in the M51-ULS-1 system is likely similar in size to Saturn. and orbits a neutron star or black hole at about twice the distance between Saturn and our sun.
Discovery of extrasolar planetsin general must be reconfirmed by observing the planet as it circles back to obscure the star again. But due to the orbital distance, the planet has an orbital period of 70 years, it is difficult to confirm this discovery with repeated observations.
There is also another possibility. This obscuring may have been caused by other objects such as clouds or dust, but the researchers found this extremely unlikely. This is because the appearance does not correspond to the characteristics that are obscured by clouds or dust. But it is very consistent with objects such as planets.
For this reason, it is highly likely that the discovered object may beFirst exoplanet outside the Milky Way Galaxysince it was discovered which if this is a real planet This planet will have to go through a very intense experience. In addition to surviving a supernova explosion that gave birth to a neutron star or black hole. in the near future This planet may suffer another explosion of a neighboring star and suffer the massive amount of radiation it emitted.
for this discovery It was caused by Di Stefano and his research team tracked X-ray transits in up to three galaxies. Using both ESA’s Chandra and XMM-Newton space telescopes, they tracked over 55 X-ray binary systems in galaxy M51, 64 in galaxy M101 and over 119 in galaxy M104.
The team will now try to search the Chandra and XMM-Newton space telescope databases to look for other exoplanets that may have been accidentally recorded previously. This could lead to the discovery of more extragalactic planets in the future. It could also lead to the discovery of planets in the Solar System under extreme environments such as orbiting X-ray binary.
reference :https://www.nasa.gov/
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