Kepler-1625b is a super-Jupiter exoplanet orbiting the Sun-like star Kepler-1625 about 2,500 parsecs (8,200 light-years) away in the constellation of Cygnus.[4] The large gas giant is approximately the same radius as Jupiter,[1] and orbits its star every 287.4 days.[5] In 2017, hints of a Neptune-sized exomoon in orbit of the planet were found using photometric observations collected by the Kepler Mission.[6][7] Further evidence for a Neptunian moon was found the following year using the Hubble Space Telescope, where two independent lines of evidence constrained the mass and radius to be Neptune-like.[1] The mass-signature has been independently recovered by two other teams.[8][9] However, the radius-signature was independently recovered by one of the teams[9] but not the other.[8] The original discovery team later showed that this latter study appears affected by systematic error sources that may have influenced its findings.[10]
Artist's impression of the exoplanet Kepler-1625b and its candidate exomoon Kepler-1625b I. | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovery site | Kepler Space Observatory |
| Discovery date | 10 May 2016 |
| Transit (Kepler Mission) | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| 0.98 ± 0.14 AU | |
| 287.378949 d | |
| Inclination | 89.97 ± 0.02 |
| Known satellites | Kepler-1625b I? |
| Star | Kepler-1625 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 1.18+0.18 −0.32 RJ[2] | |
| Mass | ≤11.60 MJ[3] |
Characteristics
editMass and radius
editKepler-1625b is a Jovian-sized gas giant, a type of planet several times greater in radius than Earth and mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. It has been estimated to be 11.4±1.5 times Earth's radius, approximately equal to that of the planet Jupiter.[1] Its mass is unknown, but is constrained at 3-sigma confidence to be less than 11.6 times the mass of Jupiter (about 3,700 Earth masses), based on non-detection in radial velocity observations.[3] This indicates that it is below the deuterium-fusing limit, which is around 13 Jupiter masses, and so it is not a brown dwarf.[3]
Orbit and temperature
editUnlike the gas giants in our Solar System, Kepler-1625b orbits much closer, slightly closer than the orbital radius as the Earth around the Sun.[1] The planet takes 287 days (0.786 years; 9.43 months) to orbit Kepler-1625, as a result of the star's slightly greater mass than the Sun. Kepler-1625b receives 2.6 times more insolation than the Earth,[1] meaning it lies at the inner edge of the habitable zone.[11] However, as the planet has likely no solid surface, bodies of liquid water are impossible.
Candidate exomoon
edit| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Alex Teachey, David M. Kipping and Allan R. Schmitt |
| Discovery date | 2017 |
| Primary transit | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Satellite of | Kepler-1625b |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 0.437 RJ | |
| Mass | 19.069 M🜨 0.06 MJ[13] |
Mean density | 0.95 g/cm3 |
In July 2017, researchers found signs of a Neptune-sized exomoon (a moon in another solar system) orbiting Kepler-1625b using archival Kepler Mission data.[6][7]
In October 2018, researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope published new observations of the star Kepler-1625, conducted in October 2017, which revealed two independent lines of evidence indicative of a large exomoon Kepler-1625b I.[1][14] These were a 20-minute Transit Timing Variation signature that indicated an approximately Neptune-mass moon, and an additional photometric dip that indicated a Neptune-radius moon.[1] The relative phasing of the two signatures was also consistent with that which a real moon would cause, with the effects in anti-phase.[1] The study concluded that the exomoon hypothesis is the simplest and best explanation for the available observations, though warned that it is difficult to assign a precise probability to its reality and urged follow-up analyses.[15][1] Like several moons in the Solar System,[16] the large exomoon would theoretically be able to host its own moon, called a subsatellite, in a stable orbit, although no evidence for such a subsatellite has been found.[17]

In February 2019, an independent reanalysis of the combined Kepler and Hubble observations recovered both a moon-like dip and similar transit timing variation signal.[9] However, the authors suggested that the data could also be explained by an inclined hot-Jupiter in the same system that has gone previously undetected, which could be tested using future Doppler spectroscopy radial velocity measurements. A second independent reanalysis was published in April 2019, which recovered one of the two lines of evidence, the transit timing variation, but the not the second, the moon-like dip.[8] The original discovery team responded to this soon after, finding that this re-analysis exhibits stronger systematics in their reduction which may be responsible for their differing conclusion.[10]
See also
editReferences
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Teachey, Alex; et al. (3 October 2018). "Evidence for a large exomoon orbiting Kepler-1625b". Science Advances. 4 (10) eaav1784. arXiv:1810.02362. Bibcode:2018SciA....4.1784T. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aav1784. PMC 6170104. PMID 30306135.
- ↑ Heller, René (1 February 2018). "The nature of the giant exomoon candidate Kepler-1625 b-i". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 610: A39. arXiv:1710.06209. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201731760. ISSN 0004-6361.
- 1 2 3 Timmermann, Anina; Heller, Rene; Reiner, Ansgar; Zechmeister, Mathias (2020). "Radial velocity constraints on the long-period transiting planet Kepler-1625 b with CARMENES". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 635: 59. arXiv:2001.10867. Bibcode:2020A&A...635A..59T. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201937325. S2CID 210942758.
- ↑ Luri, X.; Brown, A.; Sarro, L. (10 August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616: 19. arXiv:1804.09376. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...9L. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201832964. S2CID 244895570. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ↑ "Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System". Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - 1 2 Crane, Leah (27 July 2017). "First exomoon might have been spotted 4000 light years away". NewScientist. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- 1 2 Teachey, Alex; et al. (22 December 2017). "HEK. VI. On the Dearth of Galilean Analogs in Kepler, and the Exomoon Candidate Kepler-1625b I". The Astronomical Journal. 155 (1). 36. arXiv:1707.08563. Bibcode:2018AJ....155...36T. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa93f2. S2CID 118911978.
- 1 2 3 Kreidberg, Laura; Luger, Rodrigo; Bedell, Megan (24 April 2019). "No Evidence for Lunar Transit in New Analysis of Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Kepler-1625 System". The Astrophysical Journal. 877 (2): L15. arXiv:1904.10618. Bibcode:2019ApJ...877L..15K. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab20c8. S2CID 129945202.
- 1 2 3 Heller, Rene; Rodenbeck, Kai; Giovanni, Bruno (17 April 2019). "An alternative interpretation of the exomoon candidate signal in the combined Kepler and Hubble data of Kepler-1625". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 624. 8. arXiv:1902.06018. Bibcode:2019A&A...624A..95H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201834913. S2CID 119311103. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- 1 2 Teachey, Alex; Kipping, David M.; Burke, Christopher (5 March 2020). "Loose Ends for the Exomoon Candidate Host Kepler-1625b". The Astronomical Journal. 159 (4): 142. arXiv:1904.11896. Bibcode:2020AJ....159..142T. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab7001. S2CID 135465103.
- ↑ Zsom, Andras; Seager, Sara; et al. (2013). "Towards the Minimum Inner Edge Distance of the Habitable Zone". The Astrophysical Journal. 778 (2): 109. arXiv:1304.3714. Bibcode:2013ApJ...778..109Z. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/109. S2CID 27805994.
- ↑ Chou, Felicia; Villard, Ray; Hawkes, Alison; Brown, Katherine (3 October 2018). "Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System". NASA. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
- ↑ "The Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia — Kepler-1625 b I". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ↑ "Kelpler-1625b-I". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. 15 July 2019. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ↑ Drake, Nadia (3 October 2018). "Weird giant may be the first known alien moon - Evidence is mounting that a world the size of Neptune could be orbiting a giant planet far, far away". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ↑ Kollmeier, Juna A.; Raymond, Sean N. (21 November 2018). "Can moons have moons?". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 483: L80–L84. arXiv:1810.03304. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/sly219.
- ↑ Forgan, Duncan H. (11 February 2019). "The habitable zone for Earth-like exomoons orbiting Kepler-1625b". International Journal of Astrobiology. 18 (6): 510–517. arXiv:1810.02712. Bibcode:2019IJAsB..18..510F. doi:10.1017/s1473550418000514. ISSN 1473-5504. S2CID 118857039.
- ↑ Teachey, Alex; Kipping, David M. (October 2018). "Evidence for a large exomoon orbiting Kepler-1625b". Science Advances. 4 (10) eaav1784. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aav1784. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 6170104. PMID 30306135.