Hot on the heels of the first capture on an atom of anti-matter in a magnetic “bottle,” scientists now say they’ve discovered the first planet formed outside of the Milky Way. The online edition of the journal “Science” reports that a planet has been found orbiting “our” Star HIP 13044. The new planet is a remnant of an ancient galaxy that collided with the Milky Way and is a mere 2000 light years away. What makes the find intriguing is that, unlike planets in our solar system, the new planet contains almost no atoms heavier than hydrogen or helium. Johny Setiwan from the Max Planck Institute says,”It is a puzzle for the widely accepted model of planet formation to explain how such a star, which contains hardly any heavy elements at all, could have formed a planet. Planets around stars like this must probably form in a different way.”
Ok, ok, it’s just a not-so-clever entre to David Bowie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSYbRiYwTY&feature=related
Source: AP
–Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger