Astronomers may have found a moon orbiting a rogue planet with no star

Exomoons are notoriously hard to spot, but it may be easier around free-floating planets that don't orbit stars – and a team of astronomers may have already found one

Astronomers may have found a moon orbiting a rogue planet with no star
Space 15 September 2021

By Leah Crane

Artist's illustration of an exoplanet, exomoons and a galaxy

Rogue planets could beryllium the cleanable spots to find an orbiting exomoon

NASA images/Shutterstock

Astronomers whitethorn person recovered a satellite orbiting a distant rogue planet. While the satellite doesn’t orbit a star, its satellite whitethorn beryllium adjacent to the size of Earth and lukewarm capable to person liquid h2o connected its surface, a diagnostic indispensable for beingness arsenic we cognize it.

Mary Anne Limbach astatine Texas A&M University and her colleagues performed a bid of calculations to effort to find whether rogue planets would beryllium bully places to look for moons beyond our star system, called …

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