Planet From Another Galaxy

New Planet Hard to See Near Parent Star

Planets orbiting around another star are so far away that the light from the star makes then virtually invisible. It is like trying to see a small house fly buzzing around a street light from miles away. For two decades now, astronomers and astrophysicists have been using a “wobble” technique to detect such planets outside of our own solar system. They have been very successful, finding several hundred planets over the years.

The technique uses a basic principle of physics which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. As a planet orbits around its parent star, the planet pulls on the star and the star pulls back. The result is a very slight wobble in the stars position as seen from the earth. This is much like a parent swing a child around in a circle by the arms. Aside from getting a little dizzy, the parent wobbles a little as they spin around. Using the size of the wobble, scientists can estimate the size and number of planets around any given star.

A recently discovered planet, in orbit around a star some 2,000 light years away, may have actually been born in another Galaxy. Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute believe that about 6-9 Billion years ago a smaller dwarf galaxy collided with and was absorbed by our Milky Way. The new planet’s star is believed to have come from that galaxy.