Neptune-sized exomoon candidate tagged posts

This is an artist’s impression of the exoplanet Kepler-1625b, transiting the star, with the candidate exomoon in tow.
Credit: Dan Durda

New Neptune-sized exomoon candidate has been observed around a star some 8,000 light years away. A pair of Columbia University astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Kepler Space Telescope have assembled compelling evidence for the existence of a moon orbiting a gas-giant planet 8,000 light-years away.

In a paper published Oct. 3 in the journal Science Advances, Alex Teachey and David Kipping report that the detection of a candidate exomoon – that is, moons orbiting planets in other star systems – is unusual because of its large size, comparable to the diameter of Neptune...