Lo-Like Volcanic Moon May Have Been Discovered Orbiting Exoplanet WASP-4b

Learn how researchers may have discovered an exomoon about 635 light-years away orbiting gas giant exoplanet WASP-4b.  Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Transcript

00:01A rocky, volcanic moon could be orbiting a planet more than 600 light-years from Earth.

00:08Exomoons, or moons around planets outside our solar system, are likely too small to see directly.

00:15But astronomers think volcanic exomoons could make themselves known by creating massive clouds of volcanic gas.

00:23A new study looked at a large sodium cloud discovered in 2017 near the exoplanet WASP-49b.

00:33Scientists found evidence that the cloud is not produced by the planet or the star it orbits.

00:39Instead, the motion of the cloud suggests it originated from another object, possibly a volcanic exomoon.

00:47To get to this conclusion, researchers used a telescope on Earth to observe the silhouettes of the cloud.

00:53And the exoplanet, as they passed in front of the star.

00:59In one observation, the researchers saw the sodium cloud moving faster than the planet and away from Earth.

01:06If the cloud was coming from the exoplanet, the scientists would expect it to move toward Earth.

01:12They think this means the cloud was coming from a different source, like an exomoon.

01:19Jupiter's moon Io also spews a volcanic cloud into space.

01:22It pumps sodium, sulfur, and other gases, creating a massive cloud a thousand times wider than Jupiter.

01:30Io has volcanoes because Jupiter's gravity squeezes the moon's interior, heating it.

01:37Scientists think WASP-49b's gravitational squeezing is likely even more intense and may eventually cause its exomoon to disintegrate.

01:46While more observations are needed to confirm the existence of this exomoon, what researchers have found is promising.

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