Thanks largely toNASA ’s Kepler space telescope , astronomer have found thousands of exoplanets lurking outside our solar system . Finding what creeps around those planets , however , has examine itself to be fantastically ambitious . While scientists have had afew closecalls with exomoons over the years , so far , no discovery ’s been legit . But a group of astronomers at Columbia University now cogitate they ’ve found an exomoon for real , close to 4,000 lightyears away .
After mulling over old Kepler data point , the researchers guess they ’ve find evidence of the telescope spy a Jupiter - sized planet and a Neptune - sized moon go by in front of a genius , call Kepler-1625 . When a major planet and/or moon passes in front of a planet , or transits , it get a dip in light , which is why the team here think they ’re onto something . They plan to confirm their finding using the much more powerful Hubble Telescope .
“ After our largest sight to date , we have late detected a strong candidate moon signaling in the light breaking ball of Kepler-1625b , ” the teamwrotein a postulation for Hubble observing clock time on October 29th . The planet parade three theodolite in the Kepler data ( P~287 Clarence Day ) , in which we detect out - of - transit fluxion dips consistent with the front of a large moonlight . ”
But if retiring flubs show anything , it ’s that spotting exomoons is trickier than it sounds .
“ Exomoons are hard to detect because Moon are typically much smaller than their host planets and thus typically do n’t touch the transit eclipse short changes , except if the moon is tumid as in the vitrine of this system of rules , ” Edward Guinan , a prof of uranology and astrophysics at Villanova University , state Gizmodo . Indeed , a Neptune - sized moon would take exception our solar system - centrical discernment of what a “ synodic month ” is .
But is it worth hunting for exomoons for any particular reasons , other than the fact that it ’d be nerveless to find them ?
“ Because moons are numerous in our solar system , they are likely very common in other planetary system . extra observance proposed with Hubble may be able-bodied to confirm this exomoon , ” Guinan said . “ The discovery of exomoons is very important since some of these moons could supply additional habitats ( niches ) for liveliness . ” In our own solar system , two moon — Enceladus and Europa — have already proven themselves desirable candidate for supporting liquid water system oceans and even life .
Hopefully we ’ve found an exomoon this time . Who does n’t want to disclose an foreign moon ? If we mint out again , big conference telescopes like theJames Webb Telescopewill do the john one daylight — fingers crossed .
[ Arxiv / New Scientist ]
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