A Stunning Discovery in the Search for Moons Beyond the Solar System
Astronomers have detected what may be the first “exomoon.”
For a long time, the only moon human beings knew of was our own. In the early-17th century, the invention of the telescope extended our vision into the cosmos and allowed Galileo to discover four new moons, in orbit around Jupiter. Five moons around Saturn were found in that century, and two more in the next. By the 19th century, astronomers had detected moons around Mars, Neptune, and Uranus. Today, we know the solar system is flush with them. There are nearly 200 known moons, dutifully circling their planets and dwarf planets.
Now, after more than 400 years of studying these planetary companions, the search has reached beyond our home in the cosmos, to a different sun thousands of light-years away.
