Italians 'spot' first planet outside milky way

Italian scientists say they've 'spotted' the first planet outside the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains the Solar System.
So far around 350 planets have been discovered outside the Solar System but inside the Milky Way.
A group of scientists from the National Nuclear Physics Institute (INFN) in Lecce, working with Swiss, Spanish and Russian colleagues, say they have worked out where the first planet outside the Milky Way must be.
They have done so using a system of probabilistic calculation first posited by Einstein in his theory of relativity.
This allowed them to use a type of gravitational lensing called microlensing, the bending of light by an object smaller than large stars or other massive space objects.
The INFN's Francesco De Paolis and his colleagues developed a computer model to determine the likelihood of detecting a so-called 'exoplanet' via a microlensing event in the Andromeda galaxy.
According to De Paolis, the planet is ''six or seven times as big as Jupiter and orbits a small star, roughly half the size of the Sun''.
De Paolis said he was encouraged by the prospect of detecting more planets at such phenomenal distances.
''The technology is in place...the candidates are abundant,'' he said.