The record
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- Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, scientists have discovered a planetary system about 71 light-years away that features a red dwarf star orbited by a brown dwarf, which is in turn orbited by a Jupiter-sized object.
- Because the Jupiter-sized body orbits a brown dwarf rather than a planet, and is far more massive than any moon in our solar system, astronomers are unsure what to call it and are tentatively using the term 'exosatellite'.
- Brown dwarfs are objects between planets and stars that never grew massive enough to ignite nuclear fusion.
- The study, published in the journal Nature, notes that only a few good exomoon candidates have been found so far despite thousands of confirmed exoplanets.
What to watch next
- Whether astronomers formally adopt a definition or name for objects like this exosatellite
- Research into how the object formed, whether from a disk around the brown dwarf or through gravitational capture
- Whether more such systems or exomoon candidates are discovered, and if they turn out to be common
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Named Chile · Alice Zurlo · European Southern Observatory · Kevin Hoy · Milky Way · Nature · Universidad Diego Portales · Very Large Telescope · YEMS
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