Space: Good evidence for a second extraterrestrial satellite more than twice the size of Earth

Astronomers have announced that they have solid evidence for the existence of a huge crescent -that is, a satellite exoplanet– which is 2.6 times larger than the Earth. This is the second time in four years that an oversized satellite planet has been discovered beyond our solar system, and scientists consider it very likely that extrasolar, small and large, are as common in the universe as the exoplanets.

In particular, researchers from Columbia University, MIT, UCLA, Caltech and ETI Zurich, as well as NASA’s Ames Research Center, led by David Kipping of Columbia, New York, who published the article in the journal Nature Astronomy, announced that the candidate satellite is in orbit around the gas giant exoplanet Kepler-1708 b, which is about the size of Jupiter. It moves at a distance of 5,500 light years from Earth in the direction of the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

The moons are numerous around the planets of our solar system, with the best known of course “ours” Moon. Jupiter and Saturn have a total of more than 100 satellites of various sizes.

So far another candidate exoplanet satellite has been found, the equally huge Kepler-1625 b-i in 2018 (a moon the size of Poseidon), but has not been confirmed so far, and the confirmation of the second candidate extrasolar is expected to be delayed accordingly. The main reason is that it is not easy with existing telescopes to observe such distant moons with certainty, transmits the ΑΠΕ ΜΠΕ.

“Astronomers have found more than 10,000 potential exoplanets so far, but extrasolar satellites are much harder to find. “They are terra incognita,” said Kipping.

Kepler-1708 b-i

The new candidate extraterrestrial, with the name Kepler-1708 b-i, was found after a new analysis of his observations space telescope «Kepler». Researchers estimate that the probability of not being an exoplanet satellite is only 1%. Some other scientists, however, such as the Professor of Astronomy Eric Angol of the University of Washington, doubt whether extraterrestrials have indeed been found. In any case, more evidence will be needed to confirm its existence.

The researchers also stressed that understanding the origin of such large moons is a theoretical challenge for astronomers. One theory is that huge extraterrestrials basically have gaseous composition and probably began their lives as planets, before being “trapped” in the orbit of an even larger planet and thus becoming its satellite.

Large satellites and extrasolar satellites are considered – like some exoplanets – as potential places to appear and host extraterrestrial life.

Photo source: Helena Valenzuela Widerström