There is a chance that exomoons may be as common as exoplanets. The credit is given to Helena Valenzuela.
There is a second, super-sized moon around a Jupiter-sized planet. If it's true, it would mean that exomoons are as common in the universe as exoplanets, and that big or small moons are a feature of planetary systems. It could take a long time. Four years ago, the first ever exomoon was seen, and verification of this newest candidate could take as long as a year.
The first exomoon candidate was reported in the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University, which was led by David Kipping.
Astronomers have found more than 10,000 exoplanet candidates, but exomoons are more difficult to find. They are terra incognita.
The team spotted a giant exomoon candidate in the direction of the Cygna and Lyra constellations. The new candidate is about a third smaller than the Neptune-sized moon that was found by the team.
Both supermoon candidates are likely made of gas that has piled up under the pull of their enormous size. The moons may have started life as planets, only to be pulled into the path of a larger planet like the one that is known as the "Kettering 1625b"
There's less gravity to tug at planets and strip off their moons, which is where the two moons are located. The researchers searched for exomoons on cold, giant gas planets on a wide circle because Jupiter and Saturn have more than a hundred moons between them.
If other moons are out there, they will be harder to find. He said that the first detections in any survey would be the weirders. The big ones are easy to detect with our limited sensitivity.
Astronomers like the same reasons that exoplanets do. They have the ability to reveal where life came from. Astronomers want to know how these exomoons form, if they can sustain life, and what role, if any, they play in making their host planets hospitable.
The researchers looked at the sample of the planets captured by NASA's planet-hunting spaceship. They found one candidate with a moon-like signal after scanning 70 planets. "It's a stubborn signal," said Kipping. We threw the kitchen sink at it.
It will take years to verify the discovery, and it will require observations from other telescopes. Four years later, the first exomoon discovery is still being debated. He and his colleagues showed how one group of skeptics may have missed the moon in their calculations. Other lines of evidence are being investigated by Kipping and colleagues.
Eric Agol, an astronomy professor at the University of Washington, said he's not sure if this latest signal will turn out to be real. He said it could be due to the star or instrumental noise.
Others were more positive. Michael Hippke, an astronomer in Germany, said that this is science at its best. We find an intriguing object, make a prediction, and either confirm the exomoon candidate or rule it out with future observations.
Although it is unfortunate that only two transits have been observed, I am very excited to see a second exomoon candidate. More data would be cool.
It's not easy to spot a moon or planet hundreds to thousands of light-years away. The star's light will intermittently dim as the moon and planets pass in front of it. It is difficult to catch one of these fleeting transit signals with a telescope. Smaller moons block less light and are harder to detect.
The existence of exoplanets was greeted with the same skepticism as exomoons are today, but the search is worth it. He said that the planets are alien to our home system. They have changed our understanding of planetary systems.
There is more information on David Kipping's survey of 70 cool giant exoplanets. www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01539-1
Nature Astronomy journal has information.
Astronomers found evidence for a second super moon beyond our solar system in January of 2022.
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