Microlensing Allows Astrophysicists To Discover Far Away Objects In Extragalactic Galaxies

| February 4, 2018 | Astronomy | No Comments

MessageToEagle.com – Previously, planets have been detected only in the Milky Way galaxy.

Now for the first time, astrophysicists at University of Oklahoma have discovered a population of planets beyond the Milky Way galaxy, using microlensing — an astronomical phenomenon and the only known method capable of discovering far away planets.

Microlensing allows the study of objects that emit little or no light.. Photo credit:
Microlensing allows the study of objects that emit little or no light.. Photo credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Xinyu Dai, professor in the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, OU College of Arts and Sciences, with OU postdoctoral researcher Eduardo Guerras, made the discovery with data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a telescope in space that is controlled by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

“We are very excited about this discovery. This is the first time anyone has discovered planets outside our galaxy,” said Dai.

“These small planets are the best candidate for the signature we observed in this study using the microlensing technique. We analyzed the high frequency of the signature by modeling the data to determine the mass.”

While planets are often discovered within the Milky Way using microlensing, the gravitational effect of even small objects can create high magnification leading to a signature that can be modeled and explained in extragalactic galaxies. Until this study, there has been no evidence of planets in other galaxies.

Image of the gravitational lens RX J1131-1231 galaxy with the lens galaxy at the center and four lensed background quasars. It is estimated that there are trillions of planets in the center elliptical galaxy in this image. Credit: University of Oklahoma
Image of the gravitational lens RX J1131-1231 galaxy with the lens galaxy at the center and four lensed background quasars. It is estimated that there are trillions of planets in the center elliptical galaxy in this image.
Credit: University of Oklahoma

“This is an example of how powerful the techniques of analysis of extragalactic microlensing can be. This galaxy is located 3.8 billion light years away, and there is not the slightest chance of observing these planets directly, not even with the best telescope one can imagine in a science fiction scenario,” said Guerras. “However, we are able to study them, unveil their presence and even have an idea of their masses. This is very cool science.”

For this study, OU researchers used the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The microlensing models were calculated at the OU Supercomputing Center for Education and Research.

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