2024-10-14 09:45:00
The existence of a moon outside our solar system has never been confirmed, but a new study may provide indirect evidence of its existence.
New research reveals possible signs of the existence of a rocky moon full of active volcanoes, located orbiting an exoplanet (planet outside our solar system) located 635 light-years from Earth.
The biggest clue is a sodium-rich cloud that the findings suggest is close to the exoplanet, a Saturn-sized gas giant called WASP-49 b, although more research will be needed to confirm the cloud’s behavior. Within our solar system, gas emissions from Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io create a similar phenomenon.
Although the existence of exomoons (moons of planets outside our solar system) has not been confirmed, several candidates have been identified. These natural satellites have probably gone unnoticed because they are too small and too dimly luminous to be detected by current telescopes.
The sodium cloud around WASP-49 b was first detected in 2017, catching the attention of Apurva Oza, formerly at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and now at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in the United States. Both institutions merge. Oza has been studying for years how exomoons can be detected through their volcanic activity. For example, Io, which is the most volcanically active body in our entire solar system, constantly emits sulfur dioxide, sodium, potassium and other gases that can form vast clouds around Jupiter up to 1,000 times the diameter of the giant planet. These clouds could be detected from another solar system.
Both WASP-49 b and its star are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with sodium being very scarce. Neither contains enough sodium to explain the cloud, which appears to come from a source emitting about 100,000 kilograms of sodium per second. Aside from that, even if the star or planet could produce that much sodium, there is no known mechanism that could expel it into space.
Could this be a volcanic exomoon? Oza and his colleagues set out to answer this question.
And they found several pieces of evidence that suggest the cloud is created by a separate body orbiting the planet.
New research led by NASA suggests that a sodium cloud observed around the exoplanet WASP-49 b may be created by a volcanic moon, depicted in this artistic recreation. (Illustration: NASA JPL/Caltech)
However, the mystery is not over yet, since the behavior of that cloud is strange.
For example, on two occasions observations revealed that the cloud suddenly increased in size, as if it was refueling heavily, when it was not close to the planet.
Another example is that it was also observed that the cloud was moving faster than the planet, which seems impossible unless it was generated by another body that was moving independently of the planet and at a faster speed than this. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)
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