While this is a tantalizing study, more data would be needed to verify the interpretation as an extragalactic exoplanet. Based on this and other information, the researchers estimate the exoplanet candidate in M51-ULS-1 would be roughly the size of Saturn, and orbit the neutron star or black hole at about twice the distance of Saturn from the Sun. The X-ray transit they found using Chandra data lasted about three hours, during which the X-ray emission decreased to zero. This binary system contains a black hole or neutron star orbiting a companion star with a mass about 20 times that of the Sun. The team used this method to detect the exoplanet candidate in a binary system called M51-ULS-1, located in M51. This could allow exoplanets to be detected at much greater distances than current optical light transit studies, which must be able to detect tiny decreases in light because the planet only blocks a tiny fraction of the star. The material near the neutron star or black hole becomes superheated and glows in X-rays.īecause the region producing bright X-rays is small, a planet passing in front of it could block most or all of the X-rays, making the transit easier to spot because the X-rays can completely disappear. These luminous systems typically contain a neutron star or black hole pulling in gas from a closely orbiting companion star.
Astronomers using both ground-based and space-based telescopes - like those on NASA's Kepler and TESS missions - have searched for dips in optical light, electromagnetic radiation humans can see, enabling the discovery of thousands of planets.ĭi Stefano and colleagues have instead searched for dips in the brightness of X-rays received from X-ray bright binaries. This new result is based on transits, events in which the passage of a planet in front of a star blocks some of the star's light and produces a characteristic dip. "We are trying to open up a whole new arena for finding other worlds by searching for planet candidates at X-ray wavelengths, a strategy that makes it possible to discover them in other galaxies," said Rosanne Di Stefano of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the study, which was published in Nature Astronomy. An exoplanet in M51 would be about 28 million light-years away, meaning it would be thousands of times farther away than those in the Milky Way. Until now, astronomers have found all other known exoplanets and exoplanet candidates in the Milky Way galaxy, almost all of them less than about 3,000 light-years from Earth.
Virgil Fire Chief Adam Brown was at the site of the crash and could not be reached later for comment.The possible exoplanet candidate is located in the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), also called the Whirlpool Galaxy because of its distinctive profile.Įxoplanets are defined as planets outside of our Solar System. Municipal highway departments sent 10-ton trucks loaded with material and heavy equipment to spread it. They found a Mirabito fuel truck rolled completely over, its wheels in the air.įuel oil had spilled and needed to be contained, then collected. Other area fire departments also responded at the scene, as did a hazardous materials team. The Virgil Fire Department responded to the accident, as did the Virgil and Lapeer town highway departments and the state Department of Transportation. and the road, which is the main east-west thoroughfare in the town, remained closed west of Church Street until about 5 p.m., according to the Cortland County 911 Communications Center. The accident closed both lanes of the road through the afternoon and into the evening.Ī fuel truck rolled over on Route 392 in Virgil on Tuesday morning, spilling some of its contents on the road, which was closed into the evening while the site was cleaned up.
Firefighters clean the site of a fuel-oil truck that rolled Tuesday morning on Route 392 west of Church Street in Virgil.
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