Hubble Evidence of Possible Exomoon

  • Released Wednesday, October 3, 2018
View full credits

Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System

Neptune-Sized Satellite Orbits A Giant Jupiter Around a Sunlike Star

Our solar system has eight major planets, and nearly 200 moons. Though astronomers have to date found nearly 4,000 planets orbiting other stars, no moons have yet been found. That hasn’t been for any lack of looking, it’s just that moons are smaller than planets and therefore harder to detect.

The Hubble and Kepler space telescopes found evidence for what could be a giant moon accompanying a gas-giant planet that orbits the star Kepler-1625, located 8,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The moon may be as big as Neptune and it orbits a planet several times more massive than Jupiter.

Read the NASA press release at https://nasa.gov/press-release/astronomers-find-first-evidence-of-possible-moon-outside-our-solar-system

Find the science paper at advances.sciencemag.org/

Visuals are also available at HubbleSite.org.

Watch the scientists explain their research - https://youtu.be/eGjgD27Dtpc, https://youtu.be/vlcc2MdYaik

Hosted video for YouTube

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Music credits:

"Momentum" by Guillaume Bernard [SACEM]; KTSA Publishing SACEM; Gum Tapes; Killer Tracks Production Music

"Continental Drift" by Estelle Treville [SACEM], Pascal Marius [SACEM]; KTSA Publishing SACEM; Gum Tapes; Killer Tracks Production Music

Letterboxed Hosted Video for Facebook/Twitter

Music credits:

"Continental Drift" by Estelle Treville [SACEM], Pascal Marius [SACEM]; KTSA Publishing SACEM; Gum Tapes; Killer Tracks Production Music

Text-on-screen video for Instagram

Music credit:

"Momentum" by Guillaume Bernard [SACEM]; KTSA Publishing SACEM; Gum Tapes; Killer Tracks Production Music

Animation of Hubble transit data

This animation represents the Hubble data and their best-fit light curve for the transit of exoplanet Kepler-1625b and its possible moon.

Animation of light curve (no data points)

This animation represents the best-fit light curve of the Hubble data of the transit of planet Kepler-1625b and its possible moon.

Animated illustration of exoplanet Kepler-1625b and its possible moon

Credit NASA, ESA, and L. Hustak (STScI)

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Wednesday, October 3, 2018.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:46 PM EDT.

Missions

This page is related to the following missions: