Planet from Another Galaxy Discovered

[Kadie]

Planet from Another Galaxy Discovered: Galactic Cannibalism Brings an Exoplanet of Extragalactic Origin Within Astronomers' Reach

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2010) — Over the last 15 years, astronomers have detected nearly 500 planets orbiting stars in our cosmic neighbourhood, but none outside our Milky Way has been confirmed <1>. Now, however, a planet with a minimum mass 1.25 times that of Jupiter <2> has been discovered orbiting a star of extragalactic origin, even though the star now finds itself within our own galaxy. It is part of the so-called Helmi stream -- a group of stars that originally belonged to a dwarf galaxy that was devoured by our galaxy, the Milky Way, in an act of galactic cannibalism about six to nine billion years ago.

The results are published in Science Express.

"This discovery is very exciting," says Rainer Klement of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA), who was responsible for the selection of the target stars for this study. "For the first time, astronomers have detected a planetary system in a stellar stream of extragalactic origin. Because of the great distances involved, there are no confirmed detections of planets in other galaxies. But this cosmic merger has brought an extragalactic planet within our reach."

The star is known as HIP 13044, and it lies about 2000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Fornax (the Furnace). The astronomers detected the planet, called HIP 13044 b, by looking for the tiny telltale wobbles of the star caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting companion. For these precise observations, the team used the high-resolution spectrograph FEROS <3> attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope <4> at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

more...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101118141545.htm

[elehhhhna]

1. FIRST DIBS! I CALL IT!!!!

For all us planetless Scorpios.

[TheWatcher]

2. How soon can we leave?

This place is nuts.