Rare discovery of a giant moon 2.6 times larger than Earth

Astronomers have discovered a moon completely different from any object in our Solar System.

The newly discovered celestial body is 2.6 times larger than Earth.

This is the second space object discovered to be an exomoon, or moon outside our Solar System. This giant moon was discovered orbiting a Jupiter-sized planet called Kepler 1708b, located 5,500 light-years from Earth. The discovery was published in the journal Nature Astronomy on January 13.

The newly discovered celestial body is 2.6 times larger than Earth. There has never been anything like this moon in our Solar System. To better visualize, our moon is 3.7 times smaller than Earth.

This is the second time that David Kipping, associate professor of astronomy and head of the Cool Worlds Laboratory at Columbia University, and his team have discovered an exomoon. They discovered the first Neptune-sized exomoon orbiting a giant exoplanet called Kepler-1625b in 2018.

"To date, astronomers have discovered more than 10,000 exoplanets, but detecting exomoons has been more challenging. They are relatively unknown objects," said Mr. Kipping. .

A better understanding of the moons, such as how they form, whether they support life, or whether they play a role in the habitable potential of planets, could lead to a better understanding of the moons. How planetary systems formed and evolved.