Second Exomoon Discovery Announced

Colombian University scientists have announced the discovery of a second exomoon orbiting a Jupiter-sized exoplanet. This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature Astronomy, according to ЛентаРу.

The massive exomoon is orbiting the planet Kepler 1708b, which is located about 5,500 light-years from Earth, in the direction of the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. It is approximately one-third smaller than the moon of Neptune, which was discovered by a team of scientists orbiting another gas giant, Kepler 1625b.

Both exomoons are likely composed of gas, held by gravitational forces. They may have originally been planets that ended up in the orbit of an even larger gas giant. These systems are situated far from their parent stars, which might have pulled them away from each other.

To confirm the discovery made with the transit method, where a star's brightness decreases due to the passage of an object in front of it, further studies with other space telescopes, such as Hubble, are required. Some experts believe that scientists might have encountered data fluctuations due to stellar or instrumental errors.