Observations made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Unlike moons in our Solar System, the newly found object does not orbit a planet, raising questions about what to name it. Instead, it circles a brown dwarf, an object larger than a planet, that orbits the CD-35 2722 star. If confirmed, this could be the first ‘moon’ discovered outside our Solar System.
  • sbeak@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2·
    21 hours ago

    The new object, which the team call an exosatellite, is at least as massive as Jupiter while the brown dwarf has more than 30 times the mass of Jupiter

    “The satellite we report is a giant gaseous body orbiting a highly massive companion, itself several times the mass of Jupiter.”

    Oh wow, that’s a massive “moon”!

    “The exosatellite is clearly massive enough to be a planet, but it does not orbit a star, though it orbits an object that orbits a star,”

    “Being the third wheel in this system makes us want to call it a moon, even if it is nothing like the small, rocky moons we have in our system.”

    Jupiter-like object revolving around a brown dwarf, which itself is going around a proper star.