Short description: Microlensing event in the constellation Andromeda
PA-99-N2 is a microlensing event detected in the direction of the Andromeda Galaxy in 1999.
Explanations
One possibility for the event is that a star in the disk of M31 gravitationally lensed a red giant also in the disk. The lensing star would have a mass between 0.02 M☉ and 3.6 M☉ with the most likely value near 0.5 M☉. In this case the lens profile makes it likely that the star has a planet.[2][3]
Possible exoplanet
The possible exoplanet would have a mass of 6.34 Jupiter mass. If confirmed, it would be the first exoplanet found in another galaxy.[4] A similar event was seen in 1996 when a team of astronomers discovered an anomalous fluctuation in the Twin Quasar's lightcurve that seemed to be caused by a planet approximately three Earth masses in size in the quasar's lensing galaxy YGKOW G1. (However, the results remain speculative because the chance alignment that led to its discovery will never happen again; if that exoplanet could be confirmed, it would be the most distant known planet, 4 billion ly away.)[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "MEGA-ML 7". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=MEGA-ML+7.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "The Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia — PA-99-N2 b". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. 1995. https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/pa_99_n2_b--556/.
- ↑ Ingrosso, G.; Paolis, F. DE; Novati, S. Calchi; Jetzer, PH.; Nucita, A. A.; Zakharov, A. F. (2012). "The Twelfth Marcel Grossmann Meeting". 2191. doi:10.1142/9789814374552_0433. ISBN 978-981-4374-51-4. Bibcode: 2012mgm..conf.2191I.
- ↑ An, Jin H.; Evans, N. W.; Kerins, E.; Baillon, P.; Calchi Novati, S.; Carr, B. J.; Creze, M.; Giraud‐Heraud, Y. et al. (February 2004). "The Anomaly in the Candidate Microlensing Event PA‐99‐N2". The Astrophysical Journal 601 (2): 845–857. doi:10.1086/380820. Bibcode: 2004ApJ...601..845A.
- ↑ Govert Schilling (6 July 1996). "Do alien worlds throng faraway galaxy?". New Scientist (2037). https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15120372.600-science--do-alien-worlds-throng-faraway-galaxy.html.
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