In New Zealand and Tasmania,astronomers using telescopes said that they have observed an extrasolar moon candidate orbiting an object called MOA-2011-BLG-262.
Posted on 04/13/2014 3:16:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
First Exomoon Candidate is discovered by the astronomers The scientists used an innovative technique called gravitational microlensing.
The technique takes advantage of chance alignments between stars: when a foreground star passes between us and a more distant star, the closer star can act like a magnifying glass to focus and brighten the light of the more distant one. These brightening events usually last about a month.
If the foreground star has a planet circling around it, the planet will act as a second lens to brighten or dim the light even more.
By carefully scrutinizing these brightening events, scientists can figure out the mass of the foreground star relative to its planet.
In some cases, however, the foreground object could be a free-floating planet, not a star.
Astronomers might then be able to measure the mass of the planet relative to its orbiting companion: a moon.
In the new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org version), the nature of the lensing object is not clear. The ratio of the larger body to its smaller companion is 2,000 to 1.
If the planet-star scenario is true, the exoplanet would be about 18 times the mass of Earth.
If the moon-planet scenario is true, the moon, labeled MOA-2011-BLG-262Lb, would have a sub-Earth mass, the planet would have a mass of about 4 Jupiter masses...
The answer to the mystery lies in learning the distance to the circling duo.
A lower-mass pair closer to Earth will produce the same kind of brightening event as a more massive pair located farther away. But once a brightening event is over, it’s very difficult to take additional measurements of the lensing system and determine the distance.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefadaily.com ...
In New Zealand and Tasmania,astronomers using telescopes said that they have observed an extrasolar moon candidate orbiting an object called MOA-2011-BLG-262.
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Here’s a different caption from the following website:
An international team may have discovered the very first exomoon orbiting a planet in a distant solar system such as what’s illustrated here in this artist rendition. (NASA/JPL/Cal-Tech)
If we ever find a habitable exoplanet what are we going to do with that knowledge? Beam messages to it?
If we ever find a habitable exoplanet what are we going to do with that knowledge? Beam messages to it?
The Bureau of Land Management will NOT allow us to beam messages to it.
We call that one Muad’Dib.
So Harry Reid can allow the Chinese to put up windmills on it?
So Harry Reid can allow the Chinese to put up windmills on it?
So exosenators can allow exohumans to put up windmills. And to protect the exotortoise.
yeah send hairy reid he can exocise his demons
It’s called research. Look it up. Pure research made this thread possible, iow, I guess there’s a downside after all.
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