Scientists spot planets beyond Milky Way

Scientists spot planets beyond Milky Way

New Delhi, February 03: A group researchers at University of Oklahoma have discovered a population of planets beyond the Milky Way galaxy. This is the first time planets are discovered outside the milky way. The team of Astrophysicists at OU who facilitated the study, located the planets by employing microlensing technique.

Group of researchers from OU College of Arts and Sciences, headed by Eduardo Guerras along with Xinyu Dai, a professor from OU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy made the discovery. They used a telescope in space that is controlled by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory for the study

The team discovered about 2,000 extragalactic which were stationed 3.8 billion light years away during the study.

The researchers found the planets in extragalactic galaxies, beyond the milky way and they also discovered that the planets’ mass could range from the mass of the Moon to the mass of Jupiter.

When compared to other detection techniques in astrophysics, microlensing is the only known method capable of discovering planets at truly great distances from the Earth . The technique employs gravity effect of small objects to create magnified images of faraway galaxies.