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posted by LaminatorX on Friday April 11 2014, @01:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the XOXOXO dept.

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.)

 
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  • (Score: 2) by NovelUserName on Sunday April 13 2014, @03:39PM

    by NovelUserName (768) on Sunday April 13 2014, @03:39PM (#30777)

    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.

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