Astronomers may have found the first exomoon
4 hours ago
- Astronomers have detected evidence for a moon-like object orbiting a brown dwarf in the CD-35 2722 system.
- If confirmed, this would be the first exomoon discovered outside our Solar System.
- Unlike Solar System moons, it does not orbit a planet but a brown dwarf, challenging traditional definitions.
- The discovery was made using the CRIRES+ instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope and the radial velocity method.
- The study, led by Kevin Hoy, is published in Nature.
- Future observations with ESO's Extremely Large Telescope could enable detection of smaller exomoons.