Astronomy: A promising new exomoon candidate

 
A paper reporting on a new candidate for an exomoon, a satellite orbiting planets outside the region of our solar system,Nature Astronomy Will be published in.If the situation that Kepler-2.6 bi, which is 1708 times the size of the earth, is an exoplanet is confirmed, it could be a puzzle piece that is lacking in understanding the formation and evolution of the exoplanet system. be.

Although satellites are ubiquitous in our solar system, no satellites orbiting extrasolar planets have yet been identified, but so far candidate objects such as Kepler-1625 bi have been suggested.Cold giant planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, that orbit at some distance from the stars are good places to form satellites.However, such planets are subway (the most common way to discover exoplanets, observing subtle changes in brightness that occur as the planetary satellite system passes in front of the star). Difficult to detect.

Now, David Kipping and colleagues used the transit method to look for traces of exoplanets to investigate exoplanets discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope.They focused on 70 cold (300 K, less than about 27 ° C) gas giants.They orbit each star at a distance farther than the distance between the Sun and the Earth, that is, with a period longer than one year.After rigorous research, the authors found only one signal around a Jupiter-sized exoplanet called Kepler-1b.This signal is best explained by the presence of the exoplanet Kepler-1708 bi around Kepler-1 b, with a 1708% chance that this signal will be falsely detected.

The authors caution that further evidence may be needed to confirm the existence of the Kepler-1708 bi signal and the possible status of subsequent exomoons.However, understanding the origin of such giant satellites is a challenge to planet formation theory, the authors say.

 
* This article is reprinted from "Nature Japan Featured Highlights".
Reprinted from: "Astronomy: A promising candidate for a new exomoon'