Signs of a planet transiting a star outside of the Milky Way galaxy may have been detected for the first time. This intriguing result, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, opens up a new window to search for exoplanets at greater distances than ever before.

The possible exoplanet candidate is located in the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), also called the Whirlpool Galaxy because of its distinctive profile.

Exoplanets are defined as planets outside of our Solar System. 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. 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.

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The information catastrophe.

A NASA telescope might have found the first ever planet outside of our own Milky Way galaxy.

If confirmed, the world would be thousands of times further away than the many exoplanets we have found in our own galaxy so far.

Scientists were able to do so using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, using techniques that could allow for the search for other worlds to dramatically the amount of space it is able to scan.

Strange black ‘superionic ice’ that could exist inside other planets.

Scientists have long known the fate of our solar system – and likely the fate of Earth itself. Our Sun will eventually become a red giant and swallow Earth.