Scientists have never seen a moon orbiting a planet other than those in this solar system. An exomoon, companion of a exoplanetwould likely be too small and too far away for telescopes to resolve.
But a new NASA The study may have found a clue that one is orbiting a planet located about 635 light years from Earth. The deduction comes from a vast cloud of sodium spotted in space. Whatever the trigger, it produces about 220,000 pounds of sodium per second.
Research suggests rocky moon circling exoplanet WASP-49 ba size of Saturn gas giant discovered in 2017, is the source. This could mean that the distant world is accompanied by a moon like Io of Jupiter – a highly volcanic place, spewing its own massive cloud of gas 1,000 times larger than Jupiter.
“The evidence is very compelling that something other than the planet and the star is producing this cloud,” said Rosaly Lopes, a planetary geologist who co-authored the study, in a declaration. “Detecting an exomoon would be quite extraordinary, and thanks to Io, we know that a volcanic exomoon is possible. »
Webb telescope discovers first clear evidence of a ‘steam world’
An exomoon could be the origin of a astonishing sodium cloud discovered around an exoplanet.
Credit: Illustration NASA/JPL-Caltech
This is not the first time that astronomers have suspected an exomoon was hiding in their data. Exomoon candidates have been discovered in the past, but confirming their existence is much more difficult. Scientists like Apurva Oza, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, want to find unconventional ways to detect them for what they might represent: Monday across the galaxy could also potentially provide habitable situations for life, even if their host planets do not.
This is why Oza wanted to return to the study of WASP-49 b to deepen his research on the source of its astonishing cloud. The researchers used a ground-based telescope to observe silhouettes of the cloud and exoplanet as they passed in front of the host star.
Crushable speed of light
At one point, they noticed that the cloud was moving faster than WASP-49 b and away from Earth. If the cloud came from the exoplanet, they thought they would have seen it moving toward Earth. The comment led them to conclude that the cloud came from a separate source, according to the paper recently published in Letters from astrophysical journals.
The exoplanet WASP-49 b could have an exomoon similar to Jupiter’s Io, a highly volcanic world pumping gas into space.
Credit: Illustration NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We think this is a really important piece of evidence,” said Oza, a Caltech research scientist and lead author, in a declaration. “The cloud is moving in the opposite path that physics tells us it should take if it were part of the planet’s atmosphere. »
The team’s research provided further clues that an exomoon was creating the cloud. The planet and the star are mainly made up of the lightest elements, hydrogen and heliumwith almost no sodium. Apparently neither has enough to be responsible for the cloud. The scientists also used data from the European Southern Observatory Very large telescope in Chile to see that the aircraft cloud above the exoplanet’s atmosphere, just as the Io cloud envelops Jupiter.
The team then developed computer models to see if an exomoon could be the catalyst for the cloud. Their simulations showed that a moon with a comfortable eight-hour orbit around the planet could explain the movement of the cloud – the way it sometimes seemed to drift in front of the planet and how it didn’t seem to be tied to any particular region of the planet. planet. extraterrestrial world.
Jupiter’s moon Io, seen in several views above, is the most volcanically active world in our solar system.
Crédit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Scientists can’t say anything definitive about the automotive exomoon; it’s only a candidate. But here’s what astronomers know about Io: the third largest Jovian moon sur 95. I is the most volcanic world in the solar system. Astronomers believe that hundreds of volcanoes spew fountains that reach tens of kilometers in height.
Jupiter’s gravity tightens IoThe Moon’s core moves closer, then slows down as it moves further away. This swelling and contraction causes Inside Io heat, trigger tidal volcanism.
Scientists will need to continue observing this cloud to confirm its behavior. So the team is probably far from knowing for sure whether they have proof of an exomoon. Still, the results are exciting for Oza, who thinks that searching for gas clouds – perhaps an order of magnitude larger than their supply – could be an indirect method for finding habitable moons in other star systems.
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