86: Extragalactic X-Ray Exoplanet
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Description
We've spotted thousands of planets around other stars in our own Milky Way. But when we look at other galaxies, it's mostly impossible to see individual stars — let alone any planets orbiting them. Recently, astronomers spotted what looks suspiciously like a transit event in the signal from a bright x-ray binary system in the whirlpool galaxy. Could it be an exoplanet? Emily runs throuugh all the ways this might *not* be the case, and we're left with a tantalising "well ... maybe”.
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Way, way back in the early epochs of Syzygy (ep 19 in Oct 2018 if you must know) we talked about the exciting prospect of spotting the first exomoon — a moon orbiting a planet orbiting a star that is not our own. It seemed reasonable to expect that six years later exomoons would be a thing we've...
Published 11/13/24
Published 11/13/24
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Published 11/08/24