Have we ever found planets in Andromeda?

Question

Have astronomers ever seen any planets around the solar systems that make up Andromeda?

Answer 1

I think you mean the Andromeda Constellation. All of whose stars are in the Milky Way and mostly under 1,000 light years away.

Upsilon Andromedae (υ Andromedae / Ups And) is a binary star, approximately 44 light-years away in the constellation Andromeda.

The system contains a yellow-white dwarf star (Upsilon Andromedae A, magnitude 4.09) similar to the Sun and a dim red dwarf (Upsilon Andromedae B).

The two stars are separated by around 750 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

As of 1999, three extrasolar planets are known in orbit around Upsilon Andromedae A. All three are comparable to Jupiter in mass. Upsilon Andromedae was both the first multiple-planet planetary system to be discovered around a main sequence star, and the first multiple-planet system known in a multiple star system.

Upsilon Andromedae A is ranked 21st in the list of top 100 target stars for the NASA Terrestrial Planet Finder mission

Note the range of masses, orbital periods and distances from the star.

Planet's Name: Upsilon Andromedae A b Constellation: Andromeda
Star's spectral type: F8V
Planet's Mass: 0.69 x Mass of Jupiter
Planet's year (in Earth days): 4.617113
Distance from star (in AUs): 0.0595
Discovered in: 1996
Distance from earth: 44 light years

Planet's Name: Upsilon Andromedae A c Constellation: Andromeda
Star's spectral type: F8V
Planet's Mass: >1.97 x Mass of Jupiter
Planet's year (in Earth days): 241.23
Distance from star (in AUs): 0.830
Discovered in: 1999
Distance from earth: 44 light years

Planet's Name: Upsilon Andromedae Ad Constellation: Andromeda
Star's spectral type: F8V
Planet's Mass: >3.93 x Mass of Jupiter
Planet's year (in Earth days): 1290.1
Distance from star (in AUs): 2.54
Discovered in: 1999
Distance from earth: 44 light years

There is one other planet found much more recently in Andromeda:

Planet's Name: WASP-1 b
Constellation: Andromeda
Star's spectral type: F7V
Planet's Mass: 0.89 x Mass of Jupiter
Planet's year (in Earth days): 2.51997
Distance from star (in AUs): 0.0382
Discovered in: 2006

Answer 2

No. The Andromeda Galaxy is much too far away for any of our current planet-finding techniques. As a matter of fact we can just barely resolve individual stars in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Answer 3

If you mean in the constellation Andromeda, the answer is yes. Upsilon Andromedae is an example. If you mean the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) the answer is no: it's too far away for them to be detected.

Answer 4

It is very common for galaxies to collide and interact with other galaxies. In fact, it is now believed that collisions and mergers between galaxies are one of the main elements that drive their evolution in time. Most galaxies probably had interactions with other galaxies since the time they formed. A galaxy is made of roughly 100 billion stars. So you would think that in a head on collision between two galaxies, there would be countless collisions between those stars, right? The fact is that in such a collision, the probability of two stars colliding is almost 0. This is because even though there are an incredibly large number of stars in the galaxies, the density of stars is not very big since the galaxies are extremely big. In other words, the sizes of the stars are very small compared to the average distance between them. This means that if galaxies were made only of stars, and that two of them would go on a head on collision, they would pass one through another without being much affected! This is however not what we observe when we look at galaxies interacting. The reason is that the space between stars in galaxies is not empty: it is full of gas and dust. This material will interact when the galaxies collide. It can interact gravitationally, the galaxies can pull on the material in the other galaxies and disrupt their morphologies. There is also friction between the gas in the colliding galaxies, causing shock waves that can trigger some star formation in the galaxies. These processes can radically affect the galaxies. For example, two spiral galaxies can merge to form an elliptical galaxy. There are other scenarios depending on the masses of the galaxies, but basically when two galaxies of similar mass collide they become a large elliptical galaxy. When a massive galaxy encounters a less massive galaxy, the effects of the merger are smaller and the massive galaxy can maintain its shape. This should answer most of your Q's. 1)Something may happen or not to solar system depending up on the angel of collusion 2)If at all we survive that long surely we can jump from planet to planet. 3)A massive Black Hole which will hold together the stars of both galaxies. 4)surely 5)I will name the new galaxy Andro Way.But the problem is It will take millions of years to complete the merger.

Answer 5

Given our current technology, Andromeda is still just a bit far away to make out planets ☺

Doug