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Astrophysicists discover "Extragalactic" planets


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https://phys.org/news/2018-02-astrophysicists-planets-extragalactic-galaxies-microlensing.html

 

Astrophysicists discover planets in extragalactic galaxies using microlensing

February 2, 2018, University of Oklahoma

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

A University of Oklahoma astrophysics team has discovered for the first time a population of planets beyond the Milky Way galaxy. Using microlensing—an astronomical phenomenon and the only known method capable of discovering planets at truly great distances from the Earth among other detection techniques—OU researchers were able to detect objects in extragalactic galaxies that range from the mass of the Moon to the mass of Jupiter.



Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-astrophysicists-planets-extragalactic-galaxies-microlensing.html#jCp

 

the paper: 

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aaa5fb/meta

Probing Planets in Extragalactic Galaxies Using Quasar Microlensing:

 

Abstract:

Previously, planets have been detected only in the Milky Way galaxy. Here, we show that quasar microlensing provides a means to probe extragalactic planets in the lens galaxy, by studying the microlensing properties of emission close to the event horizon of the supermassive black hole of the background quasar, using the current generation telescopes. We show that a population of unbound planets between stars with masses ranging from Moon to Jupiter masses is needed to explain the frequent Fe Kα line energy shifts observed in the gravitationally lensed quasar RXJ 1131–1231 at a lens redshift of z = 0.295 or 3.8 billion lt-yr away. We constrain the planet mass-fraction to be larger than 0.0001 of the halo mass, which is equivalent to 2000 objects ranging from Moon to Jupiter mass per main-sequence star.

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