---
title: "Gravitational Wave Detector May Find Exoplanets in Nearby Galaxies"
description: "When the ESA launches LISA, a constellation of gravitational wave-detecting satellites, it will likely be able to spot new exoplanets across the galaxy."
date: "2019-07-09"
modified: "2019-07-09"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/gravitational-wave-exoplanets-galaxies"
categories:
  - "Astrophysics"
  - "Gravitational Waves"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "ESA"
  - "Exoplanets"
  - "gravitational waves"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Gravitational Wave Detector May Find Exoplanets in Nearby Galaxies

![When the ESA launches LISA, a constellation of gravitational wave-detecting satellites, it will likely be able to spot new exoplanets across the galaxy.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/gravitational-wave-exoplanets-galaxies.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Broad Search

When the European Space Agency launches its Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), which is a network of satellites built to detect faint ripples of gravitational waves given off by [merging black holes](<https://futurism.com/gravitational-waves-bring-extreme-universe-into-view>), it may also discover thousands of new exoplanets.

Right now, all of the 4,000-ish exoplanets that astronomers have found are found in close proximity to our solar system — the farthest is just 27,700 light-years away. But when LISA launches in 2034, it will be [far more sensitive](<https://futurism.com/virus-bead-find-dark-matter>) than any existing exoplanet-spotting tool, [according to *Scientific American*](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/future-gravitational-wave-detectors-could-find-exoplanets-too/>). In fact, it could potentially spot exoplanets not only throughout the entirety of our own Milky Way but in neighboring galaxies as well.

## Prime Candidates

But there are some caveats. Specifically, LISA will only be able to detect exoplanets that are at least 50 times the mass of Earth — and which orbit a particular kind of binary star system, [according to research](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0807-y>) published Monday in the journal *Nature Astronomy*.

As the binary stars orbit around each other, their center of mass is thrown off by the gravity of any exoplanets orbiting along with them. That back-and-forth wobble of the star system's central point creates rippling waves that LISA would be able to spot.

That also means, per *SciAm*, that the satellite network won't be able to find exoplanets that orbit solitary stars — nor will it be able to tell whether any of these alien worlds are actually habitable.

**READ MORE:** [Future Gravitational Wave Detectors Could Find Exoplanets, Too](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/future-gravitational-wave-detectors-could-find-exoplanets-too/>) \[*Scientific American*\]

**More on gravitational waves:** *[Scientists Just Detected a Black Hole Devouring a Neutron Star](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-detected-black-hole-devouring-neutron-star>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)