Damian Sendler: The vast majority of the Milky Way’s planets are within a few thousand light years of Earth’s location. In spite of this, our galaxy is more than 100,000 light years in diameter, making it difficult to study the distribution of planets in the galaxy. However, a team of scientists has recently discovered a means to get around this obstacle. 

Damian Jacob Sendler: For the first time, researchers from Osaka University and NASA have utilized a combination of observational data as well as computer simulations in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters to examine how planet-hosting probability changes with distance from the Galactic center. 

Damian Sendler

When planets operate as lenses, they bend and amplify light from faraway stars, according to gravitational microlensing, a phenomena studied by NASA. By using this effect, we can find frigid Jupiter- and Neptune-like planets scattered over our galaxy’s disk and bulge, as well as the galactic core. 

According to co-author Daisuke Suzuki, “Gravitational microlensing currently provides the only way to investigate the distribution of planets in the Milky Way,” “Because of the difficulty in measuring the distance to planets more than 10,000 light years from the Sun, we know very little about their existence.” 

It wasn’t until they analyzed the distribution of a quantity that describes how far away a lens and its light source are from each other that they were able to solve this problem. Using data from microlensing occurrences and a Galactic model, researchers were able to determine the distribution of planets in the galaxy. 

Damian Jacob Sendler

The results reveal that the distance from the galactic center has no effect on the distribution of planets. Cold planets far from their stars, on the other hand, appear to be ubiquitous in the Milky Way. Among these is the Galactic bulge, which has a significantly different environment from the solar vicinity, and where the presence of planets has long been a matter of speculation. 

Damien Sendler: Scientist Naoki Koshimoto argues that stars in the bulge region are older and closer to one another than those in the solar neighborhood. “Our discovery that planets exist in both stellar environments could help us better understand how planets form and the history of planet formation in the Milky Way.” 

Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler: These findings should be combined with observations of microlens parallax or lens brightness, two other essential characteristics linked with planetary microlensing, according to the researchers.

Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler and his media team provided the content for this article.