Why Exomoons Are So Important

https://youtu.be/b2crw2DGy38?si=88hW0pWW06G_8A5k

#Exomoons #Astronomy

In case anyone wondering why some of us #exoplanet #scientists are interested in today's launch of #ESAEuclid, here's a link to a recent #WhitePaper that the #EuclidMission Exoplanet Science Working Group posted a few days ago. It explains how Euclid could help the #nasa #RomanMission to test planet formation theories, hunt and confirm the existence and nature of free floating planets, and possibly make the first discovery of #exomoons - moons around #exoplanets

https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.10210

Presence of liquid water during the evolution of #exomoons orbiting ejected free-floating planets: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.04946 - "Earth-mass moons with CO2-dominated atmospheres could retain liquid water on their surfaces for long timescales, depending on the mass of the atmospheric envelope and the surface pressure assumed" -> Life on distant moons: https://www.origins-cluster.de/en/news-events/news/detail?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=313&cHash=cd72b6d32089c3829ad148e3728d0cda

Life on distant moons🌑? Researchers from #ORIGINSExcellenceCluster, including #MPE scientist Tommaso Grassi, have determined the necessary properties that allow moons around free-floating planets to retain liquid water 💦 for a sufficiently long time and thus enable life.
➡https://mpe.mpg.de/7938315/news20230320
#exomoons #Exomonde

An interesting attempt to search for #exomoons in Ehrenreich+ "A full transit of ν^2 Lupi d and the search for an exomoon with CHEOPS" - the outermost Earth mass exoplanet transits the star, and the diameter of the Hill sphere (where stable orbits for exomoons exist) is only just larger than the projected diameter of the star, so they searched for additional transit dips due to exomoons. They get an upper limit of about the radius of Mars (0.6 Earth radii). #astrodon #astronomy

If we want to measure the brightness of an #exoplanet, we have a problem - the star is usually blocked by a coronagraph, and so we cannot accurately calibrate the flux from the companion! Was that change in brightness due to clouds on the exoplanet... or clouds here on Earth? But with the gvAPP at IR wavelengths, we can calibrate it and reveal variability in this companion at longer wavelengths - the future is that we can detect clouds or transiting #exomoons using a gvAPP. #astrodon

https://youtu.be/voLPBjqTSao #astronomy #exoplanets #exomoons

Io 2: Searching for exomoons with a radio telescope https://astrobites.org/2022/11/04/io-2-searching-for-exomoons-with-a-radio-telescope/ #dailypapersummaries #radioastronomy #exoplanets #exomoons

#astronomy #exoplanets #protoplanets #exomoons #PDS70 #PDS70c An article published in "The Astrophysical Journal Letters" reports a study on the circumplanetary disk around the exoplanet PDS 70 c.
https://english.tachyonbeam.com/2021/07/25/confirmations-of-moons-in-formation-around-the-exoplanet-pds-70-c/

Cool.

"[T]here’s intriguing evidence that a planet orbiting a nearby star may have the raw materials to build a moon, and one or more moons may be forming there right now. New (and extremely cool) observations confirm earlier ones that the planet is surrounded by a disk of dust with enough mass to make several moons the size of our own Moon."

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-disk-of-material-around-an-alien-planet-may-be-forming-moons-as-we-watch

#Astronomy #Exoplanets #Exomoons #Space

#astronomy #exoplanets #exomoons #ALMA #VLT #MUSE #SPHERE An article published in the journal "The Astrophysical Journal Letters" reports the observation of what is interpreted as a circumplanetary disk in the system of the young star PDS 70. https://english.tachyonbeam.com/2019/07/15/possible-moons-in-formation-around-the-exoplanet-pds-70-c