Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Astronomers might have spotted one of the first exomoons

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

We have now confirmed the existence of over 4,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, which are teaching us about how planets and systems form and could even help us locate other habitable worlds. However, one object that’s harder to spot is an exomoon. Astronomers think it’s very likely that moons exist outside our solar system, but because they are generally so small they are exceedingly hard to identify. However, astronomers from Columbia University believe they may have located evidence of an exomoon.

The potential exomoon, which is very large and is orbiting a Jupiter-sized planet called Kepler 1708b, is located 5,500 light-years away. It is the second candidate exomoon discovered by the same team, headed up by David Kipping. “Astronomers have found more than 10,000 exoplanet candidates so far, but exomoons are far more challenging,” said Kipping in a statement. “They are terra incognita.”

Artist's impression of an exomoon. — The discovery of a second exomoon candidate hints at the possibility that exomoons may be as common as exoplanets. Helena Valenzuela Widerström

Kipping and his team looked at archival data from NASA’s Kepler telescope and honed in on the coldest gas giant planets. They chose to focus on these exoplanets because the equivalent planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, both have many moons orbiting them.

Recommended Videos

They searched through data on 70 planets before finding the signal of the one exomoon candidate. Being super-sized meant that this signal stood out, and if further candidates are discovered in the future, they likely won’t be so large. “The first detections in any survey will generally be the weirdos,” Kipping explained. “The big ones that are simply easiest to detect with our limited sensitivity.”

Astronomers will need to collect more data before they can confirm whether the candidate is in fact an exomoon, or whether it’s just an oddity in the data. It’s possible that the signal could be caused by the planet interacting with its star, or noise from the Kepler instrument. So for now, Kippling and his colleagues will continue to search for more evidence about whether this is in fact a moon beyond our solar system.

The research is published in the journal

Nature Astronomy

.

Georgina Torbet

Former Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Topics

Space

Astronomers snap first up-close image of a star outside our galaxy

This image shows an artist’s reconstruction of the star WOH G64, the first star outside our galaxy to be imaged in close-up. It is located at a staggering distance of over 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This artistic impression showcases its main features: an egg-shaped cocoon of dust surrounding the star and a ring or torus of dust. The existence and shape of the latter require more observations to be confirmed.

It's sometimes hard to grasp the scale of our universe, when even our own galaxy is so large and filled with billions of stars. But all of the stars that we have seen in detail are contained within the roughly 100,000 light-year span of our Milky Way galaxy. That is, until now, as astronomers recently observed a star outside of our galaxy up close for the first time.

The researchers looked at star WOH G64, located 160,000 light-years away, using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer. The image shows the main bulk of the star surrounded by a puffy cocoon of dust and gas.

Mobile

Samsung’s great midrange phones might have a disappointing 2025

A person holding the Samsung Galaxy A55.

The Galaxy A55 is a solid, serviceable midrange phone. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that a flagship would have, but if you're just looking for a day-to-day gadget and you aren't a power user, it's more than enough. Today, news broke about its successor, the Galaxy A56 — and it's both good and bad.

According to Galaxy Club, the Galaxy A56 will get a new front-facing camera and do away with the 32MP one that's been the same since the Galaxy A51. This is good news as the 32MP camera is outdated, to say the least. The Galaxy A56 could get a 12MP front-facing camera, even possibly the same sensor used in the Galaxy S line.

Space

Scientists find evidence of hellish, volcanic moon orbiting a distant exoplanet

This artist’s concept depicts a potential volcanic moon between the exoplanet WASP-49 b, left, and its parent star. New evidence indicating that a massive sodium cloud observed near WASP-49 b is produced by neither the planet nor the star has prompted researchers to ask if its origin could be an exomoon.

We know there are thousands of planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets. And scientists are pretty sure that many of these planets must also host moons, called exomoons. But because moons are so tiny and dim compared to planets and stars, there has never been a confirmed discovery of an exomoon. Now, though, scientists have uncovered evidence of an exomoon, and it appears to be a hellish and volcanic place.

The possible moon is in orbit around WASP-49 b, a gas giant located over 600 light-years away that orbits its star so closely that a year there lasts just 2.8 days. The evidence for the moon comes in the form of a cloud of sodium that appears to be moving slightly differently from the planet, suggesting it could be linked to its own body.