Initially, astrophysicists decided that their most ordinary moons revolved around the two worlds, and they were very happy: outside the solar system, not a single natural satellite of the planet had yet been seen. But recent studies have not confirmed these findings.
This is an artist’s rendering of exoplanet Kepler-1625b in the constellation Cygnus, 8,000 light-years away. And it revolves there around a star very similar to the Sun. Moreover, this distant world is located near its star approximately in the same place where Venus is located in our solar system. To be more precise, a little further than Venus. Scientists say that, purely theoretically, it may no longer be too hot there and there could be oceans on this planet.

Scientifically, this is called the potentially habitable zone of the planet, or the “Goldilocks Zone”, which is the ideal location on the planet for life on Earth. However, astronomers have not discovered a second Earth on this planet, and today there is virtually no hope that life will be found there. It is a gas giant planet. According to various estimates, its size is at least 6 times larger than Earth, and up to 11 times larger than her. If the actual size is close to the maximum value, it will be approximately equivalent to Jupiter. Interestingly, this image of Kepler-1625b also works well for another distant planet, Kepler-1708b. The fact is that, according to all signs, it is also “Jupiter” and also belongs to the stars like the Sun. And it’s also in Cygnus. A little closer to Earth – 5600 light years. But what is most interesting is that similar very large objects, comparable to Neptune, were observed near these two planets. In both cases, suspicions arose that, for the first time in the history of space exploration, the satellites of planets outside the solar system had been discovered.

And it’s a completely unprecedented, gigantic gas satellite. Kepler-1625b (as astronomers believed) has a mass of 19 Earths and a radius of 4 Earths. Neptune’s radius is exactly the same, but its mass is even smaller – 17 Earths. The satellite Kepler 1708b has a radius of 2.6 Earths and is thought to have a very large mass, estimated to be 37 Earths. How these megamoons were discovered (or at least their existence was suspected) was done in the same way as planets: while passing through the disk of their host star. In fact, the star will dim slightly during this transit. Therefore, during the transit of these planets, the following was observed: At first, as expected, the star dimmed significantly, then the brightness of the star apparently recovered (obviously the planets followed suit). But then, just after the second, an almost imperceptible dimming occurred. . That’s why scientists thought the planet was being reached by a natural satellite: the moon (and a fairly large one at that).

Of course, as the planet advanced in front of the stellar disk with this putative moon, the additional faint dimming was unnoticeable against the general background, but as the planet moved away from the disk it advanced independently It became clear that it didn’t appear to be there. Additionally, Kepler-1625-b, for example, was found to have a different observed orbital velocity around the Sun than its calculated velocity. In other words, it’s slightly faster than it should be. And it makes you think that something is affecting the Earth with its gravity. But the main evidence is the second dimming of the star mentioned above. It was originally discovered during observations by the Kepler Space Observatory. Later, the same thing was observed when observed with the legendary Hubble telescope. However, scientists have thoroughly analyzed these observations and concluded that this additional darkening effect is, so to speak, false. As the researchers write, this is believed to be a “data processing artifact.”

And recently, another scientific paper on this topic was published. The research was conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and the Sonnenberg Observatory in Germany. Scientists reportedly used special computer algorithms to rerun data obtained by the suspected solar satellite. The conclusion is disappointing. They say it doesn’t exist there. It might be more correct to say “not recognized”. Unfortunately, even with the latest technology, we can currently only detect very large objects close to stars, and as we now know, this is not always possible. This is why most of the 5.5 thousand exoplanets already discovered in the universe are gas giants. A small world becomes difficult to see. That’s why we haven’t seen any exomoons yet. But that’s it for now. Astronomers have no doubt that distant planets have millions of different moons, some of which are not in our solar system.