Exomoons Coming Up

It seems that researchers have reached the same conclusion we talked about in some of our articles published not long ago: the exoplanet discovery process, as fortuitous and science-boasting as it may be, does get old. A series of exoplanets have been discovered in the recent few months alone. Tragically, they seem to follow a pattern that proves inhospitable for the forms of life we know – they're all giant, hot worlds, mostly of gas. But perhaps their moons can be more indulgent. This is what a new study aims to find out.

A British astronomer, David Kipping from the University College London, plans to use the same technique that allowed the discovery of more than 300 exoplanets for finding exomoons, in the hope that they would prove to be a more appropriate environment for life. This technique, called "wobble method," permits the indirect detection of a cosmic body through the way the star it orbits wobbles, due to the gravitational tugs of the body – the exoplanet in this case. Subsequently, their mass and distance from the star can be determined.

 

"Until now astronomers have only looked at the changes in the position of a planet as it orbits its star. This has made it difficult to confirm the presence of a moon as these changes can be caused by other phenomena, such as a smaller planet," explained Kipping, as cited by STFC. "By adopting this new method and looking at variations in a planet's position and velocity each time it passes in front of its star, we gain far more reliable information and have the ability to detect an Earth-mass moon around a Neptune-mass gas planet."

 

Out of all the exoplanets found, about 30 are located in the habitable regions of their stars, and there's a chance that they may have proper moons. Prof. Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), backed up the case, "It's very exciting that we can now gather so much information about distant moons as well as distant planets. If some of these gas giants found outside our Solar System have moons, like Jupiter and Saturn, there's a real possibility that some of them could be Earth-like".