Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
Nov 19, (THAINDIAN NEWS) There has been a latest discovery in the world of astronomy for one more time. This time one more planet within another galaxy has been discovered by the scientists.

Whereas, around 500 planets have already been identified in other parts of our galaxy, Milky Way, this one is the first to be ever discovered from another galaxy. Scientists claim that the Jupiter-sized world orbits a star which was approximately drawn into our galaxy known as the Milky Way. The one which has been discovered is orbiting a star called HIP 13044, which is located about 2,000 light year away. Although, the star is found to lie in the Milky way, scientists have concluded that it has originated in a separate galaxy which was later cannibalized by our galaxy, that which is known as the process of “galactic cannibalism”. The new planet is reported to be 20 percent larger than the largest planet of our galaxy, Jupiter. This has been discovered in Chile by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla telescope.

Dr Rainer Klement,of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, says that the discovery has been undoubtedly very exciting for them. This is the the first time when astronomers have detected such a planetary system in a stellar stream of extra-galactic origin. Scientists say that due to the long distances in space, it is as such not possible to confirm detections of other planets in rest of the galaxies, but this one could be done due to the cosmic merger which makes a planet reachable within their range. The planet is one of the rare which has been found to have survived the massive “red giant” expansion. It inhabits the Helmi stream of stars.