This week, astronomers released tantalizing early results that a humongous moon the size of Neptune orbits a giant planet roughly 4,000 light-years away.
If confirmed, the discovery would be huge. The bizarrely massive moon would be the first detected in orbit around an alien world, marking a new chapter in astronomers’ study of the cosmos.
However, finding the moon at such vast distances is no easy feat, and as is often the case with far-off planet finds, the team needs to collect more data to verify its existence. The astronomers have scheduled a time to train the Hubble Space Telescope on the planet’s home star in October 2017 to see if the signal holds up.
“This candidate is intriguing, and we obviously feel good enough about it that we've asked for Hubble time,” co-author Alex Teachey, a graduate student at Columbia University, says in an email. “But we want to be crystal clear that we are not claiming a detection at this point.”
ANOTHER COUP FOR KEPLER?
If the results bear fruit, the moon would be the latest in a remarkable string of discoveries for Kepler. Launched in 2009, the space-based observatory has found more than 2,000 alien worlds and about 4,000 candidate planets, and astronomers are not yet done mining its riches. In June, astronomers using Kepler data identified 219 more candidates alien planets, including some that may be habitable like Earth. Read more....
If confirmed, the discovery would be huge. The bizarrely massive moon would be the first detected in orbit around an alien world, marking a new chapter in astronomers’ study of the cosmos.
However, finding the moon at such vast distances is no easy feat, and as is often the case with far-off planet finds, the team needs to collect more data to verify its existence. The astronomers have scheduled a time to train the Hubble Space Telescope on the planet’s home star in October 2017 to see if the signal holds up.
“This candidate is intriguing, and we obviously feel good enough about it that we've asked for Hubble time,” co-author Alex Teachey, a graduate student at Columbia University, says in an email. “But we want to be crystal clear that we are not claiming a detection at this point.”
ANOTHER COUP FOR KEPLER?
If the results bear fruit, the moon would be the latest in a remarkable string of discoveries for Kepler. Launched in 2009, the space-based observatory has found more than 2,000 alien worlds and about 4,000 candidate planets, and astronomers are not yet done mining its riches. In June, astronomers using Kepler data identified 219 more candidates alien planets, including some that may be habitable like Earth. Read more....