Exomoon

Artist's impression of candidate exomoon Kepler-1625b I orbiting its planet.[1]

An exomoon or extrasolar moon is a natural satellite that orbits an exoplanet or other non-stellar extrasolar body.[2]

Exomoons are difficult to detect and confirm using current techniques,[3] and to date there have been no confirmed exomoon detections.[4] However, observations from missions such as Kepler have observed a number of candidates.[5][6] Two potential exomoons that may orbit rogue planets have also been detected by microlensing.[7][8] In September 2019, astronomers reported that the observed dimmings of Tabby's Star may have been produced by fragments resulting from the disruption of an orphaned exomoon.[9][10][11] Some exomoons may be potential habitats for extraterrestrial life.[2]

  1. ^ "Hubble finds compelling evidence for a moon outside the Solar System – Neptune-sized moon orbits Jupiter-sized planet". spacetelescope.org. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  2. ^ a b Woo, Marcus (27 January 2015). "Why We're Looking for Alien Life on Moons, Not Just Planets". Wired. Archived from the original on 27 January 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference kipping09 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Heller, René (2014). "Detecting Extrasolar Moons Akin to Solar System Satellites with an Orbital Sampling Effect". The Astrophysical Journal. 787 (1): 14. arXiv:1403.5839. Bibcode:2014ApJ...787...14H. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/787/1/14. ISSN 0004-637X. S2CID 118523573.
  5. ^ Teachey, Alex; Kipping, David M. (4 October 2018). "Evidence for a large exomoon orbiting Kepler-1625b". Science Advances. 4 (10): eaav1784. arXiv:1810.02362. Bibcode:2018SciA....4.1784T. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aav1784. PMC 6170104. PMID 30306135.
  6. ^ Kipping, David; Bryson, Steve; et al. (13 January 2022). "An exomoon survey of 70 cool giant exoplanets and the new candidate Kepler-1708 b-i". Nature. 6 (3): 367–380. arXiv:2201.04643. Bibcode:2022NatAs...6..367K. doi:10.1038/s41550-021-01539-1. PMC 8938273. PMID 35399159.
  7. ^ Bennett, D.P.; et al. (13 December 2013). "A Sub-Earth-Mass Moon Orbiting a Gas Giant Primary or a High Velocity Planetary System in the Galactic Bulge". The Astrophysical Journal. 785 (2): 155. arXiv:1312.3951. Bibcode:2014ApJ...785..155B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/785/2/155. S2CID 118327512.
  8. ^ Miyazaki, S.; et al. (24 July 2018). "MOA-2015-BLG-337: A Planetary System with a Low-mass Brown Dwarf/Planetary Boundary Host, or a Brown Dwarf Binary". The Astronomical Journal. 156 (3): 136. arXiv:1804.00830. Bibcode:2018AJ....156..136M. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aad5ee. S2CID 58928147.
  9. ^ Columbia University (16 September 2019). "New observations help explain the dimming of Tabby's Star". Phys.org. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  10. ^ Martinez, Miquel; Stone, Nicholas C.; Metzger, Brian D. (5 September 2019). "Orphaned Exomoons: Tidal Detachment and Evaporation Following an Exoplanet-Star Collision". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 489 (4): 5119–5135. arXiv:1906.08788. Bibcode:2019MNRAS.489.5119M. doi:10.1093/mnras/stz2464.
  11. ^ Carlson, Erika K. (18 September 2019). "Shredded exomoon may explain weird behavior of Tabby's Star - Tabby's star may have kidnapped an icy "exomoon" from its parent planet and brought it close in, where the world evaporated, creating dust and debris". Astronomy. Retrieved 19 September 2019.