In the past few months, many mysteries of the space have been unveiled. Lately, we’ve seen researchers discovering giant alien planet which is 11 times bigger than Jupiter, ancient lakebed on Mars, a new moon at the edge of Saturn’s ring, Jupiter’s moon Europa spouting water vapor and so on. However, the research about the planets and its moons is still going on. In continuation to that research, now researchers at the University of Notre Dame scientists claim that they might have found first alien moon.
Using an unusual method researchers found that there is relatively a small, planet-like object which is orbiting a much larger object. One microlensing data shows this pair of objects is relatively near to our solar system, at a distance of about 1800 light years between them, and consists of a planet around four times the mass of Jupiter and a moon about half the mass of Earth – and thus many times more massive than our moon. If this is true, then the researchers have discovered the first exomoon.
On the other hand, another microlensing data shows this pair of objects is much further away and consists of a very small star or a failed star known as a brown dwarf, orbited by a Neptune-mass planet.
That means, at present researchers are unclear whether or not these two objects are a planet and its moon. On the other side, researchers believe that whether or not they find an alien moon, the techniques they used in their discovery will help astronomers to find out the location of exomoons in the future.
Source: Cornell University Library
Thanks To: New Scientist
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