November 3rd, 2009
Hints of More Extra-Galactic Planets
M 51. Credit: NOAO
We regularly report on the discovery of extrasolar planets in our galaxy, but earlier this year came news of possibly the first planet discovered outside of the Milky Way. Now comes news of the potential discovery of dozens of extragalactic planetary systems. Erin Mentuch and her colleagues at the University of Toronto in Canada have analyzed 88 remote galaxies and found a broad continuum excess in the near-infrared. They conclude the most likely explanation for the 2-5 micron excess is the light from circumstellar disks, or young solar systems, forming around massive young stars. "[This] presents us with an exciting opportunity to measure the formation rate of planetary systems at cosmic epochs before our own Solar System formed," the team writes in their paper.
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