How much concrete fact do we know about planets in the Andromeda galaxy?

Question

Either what do we know about the planets there or is there a link to send me where there's some good, solid info.

Answer 1

Absolutely nothing. There are probably planets there. Andromeda is far too far away to detect planets at out present stage of technology and there is no likely tech. that will allow it.

All the extra solar planets that have been detected (260 or so at a recent count) have been within a few dozen light years of the Earth. This is in our own backyard. Andromeda by comparison is another continent.

Answer 2

Not very much.

The only planets found, 200 at last count, have been found in the Milky Way Galaxy. No one is searching the Andromeda Galaxy for planets.

The system used to detect a planet requires a Jupiter sized planet to be in orbit around a star and that planet is massive enough to create a slight wobble in the star. By analyzing this barely significant wobble scientists can deduce the existence of a planet and the approximate size. By monitoring the wobble they can tell the orbital speed of that planet.

The second way to find a planet around another star is if the planet moves exactly between the observer and its star. The light of the star dims ever so slightly. This almost insignificant change in the brightness of the star happens when the star is put into an eclipse by the planet that is moving around it. Clearly, the planet has to be fairly large and in exactly the right position for the conditions to be right to notice the minor dimming.

Our closest neighbor, and getting closer, is the Andromeda Galaxy. If a few billion years the Milky Way and Andromeda are due for a collision. Until that point the galaxy and any possible planets in it are too far away for the observations to be made that could detect planets.

The Greater and Lesser Magellanic Clouds are considered part of the local galactic group and are closer to us than the Andromeda Galaxy. They are clusters of stars smaller than a galaxy. Even these groups of stars are too far away for the observations to be made to discover planets.

The limit is due to our optics, or space telescopes, and how much information we can pack into an observation. Increase those and you will increase the distance at which planets can be detected. Still this will only be an improvement in detail and that won't be enough to find planets in other galaxies or stellar clusters.

We do know this: From the amount of planets found so far, planets are hardly unique. Andromeda is extremely likely to have planets around some of its stars. The galaxy is similar to our own so what we find here could likely be mirrored there. The more we learn about the Milky Way the more likely what we learn will also be applicable to other Galaxies.

We also know that the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies are on a collision course. The chances of any physical objects hitting each other are minute, but gravity will have its say and gravity will make sure that both galaxies will not come out of the experience unchanged. So if there are planets in the Andromeda Galaxy, and there probably are, then some of them are likely to have their orbits disturbed when the two galaxies collide.

Answer 3

There is no concrete evidence of ANY planets existing in the Andromeda galaxy. Common sense says that it should have about as many as the Milky Way does, but for all we know planets could only exist in the Milky Way.

Answer 4

We know absolutely nothing about planets in the Andromeda Galaxy. Our present techniques are not sensitive enough to obtain information farther than a few hundred light years from the Sun, and Andromeda is three million light years away.

Answer 5

We haven't found planets in the Andromeda Galaxy, its so far away (2.5 million light years) that we can't yet even resolve the stars into individual objects.
Of the over 200 exoplanets we have found, most are around stars within 5000 light years.

For info on the planets we have found, try nasa.gov or planetquest.jpl.nasa

Answer 6

Nothing. I don't think the techniques that are used to detect extrasolar planets are sensitive enough to work at the great distance (2.5 million light years) of the Andromeda galaxy. We can conjecture that if our galaxy and it are similar we could expect what we know about our Milky Way would apply there.