New Scientist, on authority of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports that the first moon outside of our solar system may have been discovered.
It is not yet clear what double object MOA-2011-BLG-262 is: it may be a rogue planet with a massive moon about 1800 light years from Earth, or a faint star (brown or red dwarf) with a Neptune-sized planet much further away.
The discovery was made by telescopes in New Zealand and Tasmania during a micro-lensing event in 2011. Since the micro-lensing event is over and we don't know the distance of the double object, we can not distinguish between both possibilities.
(The discovery was published late 2013, but it is making mainstream news now.)
Related Stories
Hubble finds compelling evidence for a moon outside the Solar System
Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and older data from the Kepler Space Telescope two astronomers have found the first compelling evidence for a moon outside our own Solar System. The data indicate an exomoon the size of Neptune, in a stellar system 8000 light-years from Earth. The new results are presented in the journal Science Advances.
[...] In 2017 NASA's Kepler Space Telescope detected hints of an exomoon orbiting the planet Kepler-1625b. Now, two scientists from Columbia University in New York (USA) have used the incomparable capabilities of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study the star Kepler-1625, 8000 light-years away, and its planet in more detail. The new observations made with Hubble show compelling evidence for a large exomoon orbiting the only known planet of Kepler-1625. If confirmed, this would be the first discovery of a moon outside our Solar System.
The candidate moon, with the designation Kepler-1625b-i, is unusual because of its large size; it is comparable in diameter to the planet Neptune. Such gargantuan moons are unknown in our own Solar System.
Other sources put Kepler-1625 at around 4,000 light years away.
Discoveries like this are why we could use as many identical better-than-Hubble space telescopes as we can build and launch.
Also at Sky & Telescope, Cosmos Magazine, The Verge, Axios, NPR, CNN.
Evidence for a large exomoon orbiting Kepler-1625b (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav1784) (DX)
Previously: First Exo-Moon Discovered?
First Known Exomoon May Have Been Detected: Kepler 1625b i
The first suspected exomoon may remain hidden for another decade
A good exomoon is hard to find. Proving that the first purported moon around an exoplanet actually exists could take up to a decade, its discoverers say.
"We're running into some difficult problems in terms of confirming the presence of this thing," said astronomer Alex Teachey of Columbia University at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society on January 10.
[...] That uncertainty is partly because the purported moon seems to be about the size of Neptune, much larger than moon formation theories predict. And the researchers can't rule out that the evidence of the moon isn't actually evidence of a second planet. "We're trying to be very careful about not calling this a discovery, that we've got this beyond a shadow of a doubt," Teachey said.
[...] Ground-based telescopes are trying to confirm if the object is a moon or a second planet based on the object's gravitational tugs on the known planet. That's a much slower process than looking for dips in light from exoplanets and exomoons passing in front of their stars, which is what the Hubble and Kepler data reveal, and could take five to 10 years, Teachey says.
Headline News: Object Not Found.
Previously: First Exo-Moon Discovered?
First Known Exomoon May Have Been Detected: Kepler 1625b i
New Evidence Supports Existence of Neptune-Sized Exomoon Orbiting Kepler-1625b
Despite an explosion of exoplanet discoveries since the 1990s, astronomers have not confirmed the discovery of a single exomoon. In fact, only around a dozen exomoon candidates have been put forward up to now.
In 2018, David Kipping (Columbia University) and Alex Teachey (now at Academia Sinica, Taiwan) were the first, tentatively reporting a possible Neptune-radius moon about 7,800 light-years from Earth: Kepler-1625 b-i. Now, the astronomers and other colleagues have announced the discovery of another exomoon, published January 14th in Nature Astronomy. However, just as before, they urge both caution and the need for further observations.
The putative exomoon, designated Kepler-1708 b-i, was found 5,700 light-years away, orbiting a Jupiter-size planet around a star similar to the Sun. The planet is on a Mars-like orbit, at about 1.6 astronomical units (a.u.). Its moon orbits about 12 planetary radii away, similar to Europa's distance from Jupiter. Unlike Europa, though, Kepler-1708 b-i is huge, about 2.5 times Earth's size. This means the moon would be unlike any satellite in our solar system.
Journal Reference:
David Kipping, Steve Bryson, Chris Burke, et al. An exomoon survey of 70 cool giant exoplanets and the new candidate Kepler-1708 b-i [open], Nature Astronomy (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-021-01539-1)
Yet another observation to add onto JWST's schedule.
Also at Scientific American.
Previously: First Exo-Moon Discovered?
First Known Exomoon May Have Been Detected: Kepler 1625b i
New Evidence Supports Existence of Neptune-Sized Exomoon Orbiting Kepler-1625b
Exomoon Confirmation Remains Elusive
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 11 2014, @01:32PM
Ok, got that out of the way. Continue.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday April 11 2014, @01:42PM
That's no moon, that's yo momma!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday April 11 2014, @06:07PM
It's illegal to take an upskirt shot like this.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday April 11 2014, @01:33PM
Don't we normally get a pretty "artist's impression" picture with "exo-rock discovered!" articles? I'm afraid I'm one of those people who gets very excited at news of discovering news worlds , but soon feels an intense sense of disappointment when the best actual picture of it is a single red pixel in a big white splash from some space telescope somewhere.
(Score: 3, Funny) by oodaloop on Friday April 11 2014, @02:06PM
At least the article title wasn't "Scientists Look Through Telescope. You Won't BELIEVE What They Find!"
Many Bothans died to bring you this comment.
(Score: 2, Funny) by physicsmajor on Friday April 11 2014, @05:43PM
"Scientists Look Through Telescope. You Won't BELIEVE What They Find! The Sixth One Brought Me To Tears..."
(Score: 1) by slartibartfastatp on Friday April 11 2014, @06:32PM
...when the best actual picture of it is a single red pixel in a big white splash...
When you're lucky. Sometimes it's just a fluctuation on some pixel's hue, just above 3sigma. Can't get any less exciting than that.
(Score: 2) by NovelUserName on Sunday April 13 2014, @03:39PM
As a scientist working in an unrelated field, I have to say the technology and expertise to make these measurements is mind boggling. I work with neural signals in behaving animals and have trouble with signal to noise when my electrodes are tens of microns away from my target cells. Detecting microlensing of light due to exoplanets that are thousands of lightyears away is truly amazing.