This
week, scientists presented new observations from the Kepler and Hubble
space telescopes that suggest the discovery of an exomoon. These foreign
moons are the natural satellites of planets orbiting stars outside of
our solar system, of which there are no currently confirmed cases.
The
exomoon candidate orbits around an exoplanet called Kepler-1625b.
Located about 8000 light-years away from Earth, this planet is likely
several Jupiter masses while the exomoon has a mass and radius similar
to Neptune.
The scientists advocate in favour of their moon
hypothesis due to a collection of factors including timing deviations
and a flux decrement from the star.
During observation of the
star, it was noticed that there were weird deviations in the 'light
curve' generated by the 19-hour-long transit of the planet. Further
observation revealed an additional decrease in the star's brightness
after the planet transits its star.
"The first is that the planet appears to transit one and a quarter hours
too early; that’s indicative of something gravitationally tugging on
the planet," said co-author David Kipping of Columbia University. "The second anomaly is an additional decrease in
the star’s brightness after the planetary transit has completed."
"We hope to re-observe the star again in the future to verify or reject
the exomoon hypothesis," Kipping said. "And if validated, the
planet-moon system — a Jupiter with a Neptune-sized moon — would be a
remarkable system with unanticipated properties, in many ways echoing
the unexpected discovery of hot Jupiters in the early days of planet hunting."
Read the full study here: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/10/eaav1784
Image Credit: Dan Durda
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