Scientists discover first signs of an extragalactic planet, far away from all... this

At 28 million light-years away, M51-ULS-1 could be the first planet found outside the Milky Way galaxy

By Andrew Paul  |  October 26, 2021 | 6:45pm
Aux Features Extragalactic planet
Scientists discover first signs of an extragalactic planet, far away from all... this
Messier 51 Photo: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

For a long time, Mars has been the de facto choice for humanity’s first “do-over,” but with Elon Musk well on his way to being crowned Martian Memelord or whatever, that already seems poised for disappointment. Sure, we could try the moon, or an orbital space station, but a recent potential discovery is making its own case for consideration… if only for its maximal distance away from this hellhole.

Everyone, meet our most distant, Saturn-sized neighbor. Well, okay, technically just read about our most distant, Saturn-sized neighbor. According to researchers employing NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Telescope satellite, there seems to be some pretty decent evidence pointing towards our first-detected planet located outside the Milky Way galaxy.

As detailed in write-up yesterday courtesy of the BBC, the 28-million light-years-away find is based on “transits, where the passage of a planet in front of a star blocks some of the star’s light and yields a characteristic dip in brightness that can be detected by telescopes.”

This method has been used to identify thousands of exoplanets within our own galaxy, but if confirmed, this would be the first time such a discovery was made outside the Milky Way—in this case, the M51-ULS-1 binary star system within the Messier 51 galaxy, aka “The Whirlpool Galaxy.”

Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of further study that needs to be done before astronomers can say with more certainty whether their find is an actual, extragalactic planet. And seeing as how the method employed won’t be feasible again for another 70 years… we might be waiting a bit before we can begin booking our flights.

Ah, well. We suppose submitting to our forthcoming Martian Memelord is better than nothing.

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