First exomoon may have been discovered

Icy plumes erupting from Enceladus
Icy plumes erupting from Enceladus
Author

28 July, 2017

Verification about a planet-sized exomoon could open the doors to a whole new range of understanding about the worlds that lie beyond our solar system.

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope was the one to detect the exomoon signals and follow-up observations are scheduled for October, when the planet is expected to transit its star again, to get a clear observation.

Found by the Kepler space telescope the body was named Kepler-1623b I. It is in orbit of a planet that revolves around its star at a distance of 4000 light years from the Sun. "Only after the [Hubble] observation is made should any claim about this moon's existence be given much credence".

Astronomers have potentially discovered the first known moon beyond our solar system, orbiting a giant planet around a star about 4,000 light-years away.

"We anticipate that the proposed measurements would be sufficient to confirm the first unambiguous detection of a moon beyond our Solar System", the team writes in its request for time on the Hubble telescope, as per the New Scientist. Moon or not, the science of discovery is sure to move forward in exciting new ways.

They were digging through data on 284 Kepler exoplanets when they found the moon's signature. So it's possible that this exomoon began its life as a planet before being captured within the gravitational influence of its planet at a later time. The findings were made by researchers with Columbia University, which report good odds that the signal they detected reveals the presence of a moon orbiting a far away planet.

Scientists will know more once the data is confirmed as evidence of an exomoon.

They could have similar uses in another system, telling astronomers more about the worlds within it and in turn showing how similar or how different they are from the ones here. Exomoons "may yield just as many surprises as their host planets before them".


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