An 'Alien' Moon spotted

While an exoplanet is the alien planet which are outside the solar system. Thus, the findings of exomoon or 'alien' moon that was successfully detected at 1,800-light-years from Earth has became the new research object to astronomers.

Many exoplanets may have moons orbiting them. (Picture from: http://www.nature.com/)

As quoted from Softpedia, on Friday, December 27, 2013, that the exomoon findings, a natural satellite of extra solar planets have been suspected in existence since the first exoplanet discovered a few years ago. Astronomers reveal the findings of the first exomoon really detected.

Existing telescopes not yet able to capture clearer details about exomoon. But a NASA space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope could observe the exomoon more effective. The reason why the exomoon search is important, it associated with a few moons that circulating around the gas giant planets like Jupiter. And the astronomers suspect Jupiter as a place that is big enough to support an alien life.

In a new study revealed at the arXiv website, on December 13, 2013, a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, that led by David Bennett, an astrophysicist  explains the details of the technique called 'microlensing'. This technique is used to assess the data that collected by a New Zealand telescope two years ago.

At that time, in addition to surveying a star in the constellation Sagittarius, the researchers also detected a bright object, as a phenomenon known as microlensing. This rare phenomenon may occur when a planet or non-star object was moving passing between the Earth and a distant star.

In a statement, Bennett was assume that the object that passes between the Sagittarius star and Earth is a very small-sized star orbiting a Neptune-sized planet. Another possibility would be, that object is a large planet that displays exomoon in its orbit. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCE | SOFTPEDIA | ARXIV]

Note: This blog can be accessed via your smart phone.