Category Archives: Hubble Telescope

MT. VERNON Mt. Vernon Township High School will host a special education forum on the solar eclipse Sunday night.

The free event will feature hands-on activities for kids, a scientific lecture, and stargazing outside the school, said MVTHS Dramatics Director Mary Beth Mezo, one of the forum's organizers.

What's great about this presentation is it's good for all ages, Mezo said, later adding, Hopefully, some of our out-of-town guests will take advantage of it.

Rend Lake College Associate Professor Greg Hollmann and NASA Specialist Dr. Kenneth Sembach will be featured guests at the forum, which kicks off at 7 p.m. in the MVTHS Schweinfurth Theater. The forum is the final event of the Totality Fest leading up to Monday's solar eclipse.

Hollmann will speak about the significance of the eclipse and offer hands-on activities for kids to teach them about astronomy.

Then Dr. Sembach will take the stage to talk about his work with the Hubble Telescope. Sembach, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, has worked with the Hubble Telescope for about 16 years and has a leadership role in the new James Webb Space Telescope project.

The stargazing begins at around 9 p.m. as the audience will be invited outside to look at the night sky. Hollmann will provide guidance during the session, pointing out stars and other celestial bodies.

To enhance the experience, all the lights at MVTHS will be shut off, Mezo said. This, plus the high school's isolated location, should give people a clearer view of the sky, Mezo said.

You don't have all the city lights interfering with the night sky, Mezo said.

Mezo said she hopes those in attendance will learn more about the eclipse while enjoying a fun family activity.

She added the new theater is an ideal setting for the forum and it's nice to host an event there for the whole community.

It's something at the theater other than a high school production or a concert, Mezo said. This is the kind of thing that the theater needs to be doing for the community.

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Eclipse forum planned at MVTHS - Mt. Vernon Register-News

Image of Color Bang #50 courtesy of Made by Millworks.

Long Beach native Ross Sonnenberg will show large-scale original photograms, pictures produced with light-sensitive photographic paper without using an actual camera, at MADE by Millworks starting this Tuesday, August 15.

Many of Sonnenbergs photograms are incredibly celestial, with forms resembling planets, solar eclipses, galaxies and stars. While his vision is inspired by actual photos taken by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope, his work on the ground seems to consider his prior abstract painting process, with gestures that seem as emotive as they are spontaneous.

Several of the artists photograms that were created using fireworks have been featured in Harpers Magazine, WIRED and The Creators Project. Using a surprising variety of media, such as sand, colored gels and colored plastic lunch plates, to name a few items, Sonnenbergs photograms contain worlds of their own.

Image taken from @ross.sonnenberg1138.

How did Sonnenberg arrive at the making of photograms? A distinct hardship.

Twenty-four years ago Sonnenberg was getting ready to start film school, with the ultimate goal of embarking on a career within the film industry. When he became ill with a debilitating disease, that dream was quickly extinguished.

It took over eight months for the doctors to figure out what I had, Sonnenberg said in a statement. It turned out to be Systemic Lupus. I had to undergo chemotherapy to stop my immune system from killing me, and I had to say goodbye to my dream of film-making.

After several years of attempting to gain control of the disease and finally finding some balance, Sonnenberg had to find a creative outlet for the myriad ideas trapped in his head. He started painting abstract forms as expressions of his pain and loss, as well as love.

Lupus turned my life into chaos, changing the direction forever, he stated. My art has allowed me to give expression to that chaos. Im pleased to be able to show the many series of art I have created over the past 30 years for the first time."

The opening reception will take place on Saturday, September 2 from 7:00PM to 10:00PM. Ross Sonnenberg: Up Til Now will be on view starting Tuesday, August 15 through Saturday, September 30.

For more information, check out the Facebook event page here.

MADE by Millworks is located at 240 Pine Avenue.

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Photogram Artist Creates Galaxies Inspired by Hubble Telescope Images in UP TIL NOW - Long Beach Post

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a close look at the fascinating gravitational effects caused by a diminutive dwarf galaxy as it orbits its massive neighbor. The galactic pair will eventually merge, with the dwarf being eaten but it's not going down without a fight.

NGC 1512 is a colossal barred spiral galaxy containing billions of stars, plus active regions of star formation. Hubble, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency, can easily detect star formation in the galaxy's outer ring. That region is dotted with many blueish HII-emission regions, meaning that blasts of powerful radiation coming from nearby young stars are ionizing the clouds of hydrogen gas. In this observation of NGC 1512, however, the bright blue inner hub of star formation takes center-stage.

Known as a "circumnuclear starburst ring," this intense star-formation region measures 2,400 light-years across. It is fed by a conveyor belt of gas streaming down the two prominent bars from the galaxy's outer rim to the galactic core (hence the "barred spiral galaxy" designation). Astronomers think that the 400-million-year-old gravitational battle between NGC 1512 and its tiny buddy, NGC 1510 (on the right in the image), is driving the massive galaxy's gas supply and starburst ring, researchers said in a statement.

Although NGC 1510 seems to be holding its own against its neighboring gravitational bully, the unfortunate dwarf galaxy faces the beginning of the end. Already, the bigger galaxy's gravity is dragging extended tendrils of gas from the tiny galaxy, and NGC 1510's stars will eventually assimilate with NGC 1512's stellar metropolis. Astronomers know this because 2015 observations of the massive galaxy revealed that the outer regions of NGC 1512's spiral arms once belonged to another galaxy, one that was cannibalized and ingested a grim fate that also awaits NGC 1510. But in the cosmic ecosystem, this is the galactic cycle of life.

Although the doomed dwarf galaxy is small, it has a big impact on its larger companion, the statement said. Observations of these effects will help astronomers learn more about the dramatic consequences galactic mergers have for star formation in massive galaxies, according to the statement.

Note: Space.com senior producer Steve Spaleta contributed to this report.

Follow Ian O'Neill @astroengine . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook or Google+ . Originally published on Space.com .

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Hubble Telescope sees merging 'David and Goliath' galaxy pair - Fox News

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a close look at the fascinating gravitational effects caused by a diminutive dwarf galaxy as it orbits its massive neighbor. The galactic pair will eventually merge, with the dwarf being eaten but it's not going down without a fight.

The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1512 (left) and the dwarf galaxy NGC 1510 (right) are merging with one another. The duo is 30 million light-years from Earth.

NGC 1512 is a colossal barred spiral galaxy containing billions of stars, plus active regions of star formation. Hubble, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency, can easily detect star formation in the galaxy's outer ring. That region is dotted with many blueish HII-emission regions, meaning that blasts of powerful radiation coming from nearby young stars are ionizing the clouds of hydrogen gas. In this observation of NGC 1512, however, the bright blue inner hub of star formation takes center-stage.

Known as a "circumnuclear starburst ring," this intense star-formation region measures 2,400 light-years across. It is fed by a conveyor belt of gas streaming down the two prominent bars from the galaxy's outer rim to the galactic core (hence the "barred spiral galaxy" designation). Astronomers think that the 400-million-year-old gravitational battle between NGC 1512 and its tiny buddy, NGC 1510 (on the right in the image), is driving the massive galaxy's gas supply and starburst ring, researchers said in a statement.

Although NGC 1510 seems to be holding its own against its neighboring gravitational bully, the unfortunate dwarf galaxy faces the beginning of the end. Already, the bigger galaxy's gravity is dragging extended tendrils of gas from the tiny galaxy, and NGC 1510's stars will eventually assimilate with NGC 1512's stellar metropolis. Astronomers know this because 2015 observations of the massive galaxy revealed that the outer regions of NGC 1512's spiral arms once belonged to another galaxy, one that was cannibalized and ingested a grim fate that also awaits NGC 1510. But in the cosmic ecosystem, this is the galactic cycle of life.

NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 (at center) as seen from the ground, in the surrounding sky.

Although the doomed dwarf galaxy is small, it has a big impact on its larger companion, the statement said. Observations of these effects will help astronomers learn more about the dramatic consequences galactic mergers have for star formation in massive galaxies, according to the statement.

Note: Space.com senior producer Steve Spaleta contributed to this report.

Follow Ian O'Neill @astroengine. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Continued here:
Hubble Telescope Sees Merging 'David and Goliath' Galaxy Pair (Photos, Video) - Space.com

Joe Latrell

August 5th, 2017

Artists rendition of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in space. Image Credit: Northrop Grumman

The much delayed and over budget next-generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has suffered another setback prior to itsjourney to the launch pad: the October 2018 launch may be in conflict with Europes BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Both spacecraft are to be flown on Ariane 5 boosters, but the spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, cannot support two flights in the same month. BepiColombo has priority due to the tight launch window to reach Mercury. This will result in the JWST having its launch date pushed back to 2019 at the earliest.

The JWST is a space-based infrared telescope. To operate properly, it needs to maintain a temperature of 37 kelvins (236 C / 393 F). In order to achieve this when in space, the telescope relies on a large tennis court sized sunshield to protect it from external heat and light sources, such as the Sun as well as the Earth and Moon.

Light gathered from the segmented 6.5-meter (21-foot) diameter mirror is directed to the four science instruments: Fine Guidance Sensor / Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS), Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), and Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). Due to the requirement of the MIRI to operate at an even lower temperature than the other science instruments, it will utilize a cryocoolerto decrease its temperature to less than 7 kelvins (266 C / 447 F).

While smaller than telescopes here on Earth, the JWST is the most powerful space telescope ever constructed and is the science successor to the Hubble telescope.

Originally projected to cost $1.6 billion, the telescopes price tag has ballooned to over $8.8 billion. Several factors, from delays in choosing a launch vehicle to management issues, contributed to the soaring costs. Additionally, the vehicle proved harder to construct than originally envisioned. For example, during vibration testing, the spacecraft experienced several anomalies that required NASA engineers to stop the test. After analysis and modifications, the tests resumed and the JWST was given a clean bill of health.

Despite the technical issues and threats of cancellation, the project continued and the cost estimates grew. A launch delay into 2019 will only add to that dollar figure.

Artists depiction of the BepiColombo mission, with the MPO (left) and MMO (right). Image Credit: NASA

BepiColombo is a mission to explore the planet Mercury that is being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission is actually two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The objective is a comprehensive study of Mercury, including the planets surface, magnetic field, and interior structure.

The MPO is a solar-powered spacecraft carrying 11 scientific instruments. These instruments include laser altimeters, spectrometers, magnetometers, as well as several cameras. It has a mass of 1,150 kilograms (2,540 pounds) and is capable of producing 1,000 watts of power for onboard instruments.

The MMO has a mass of 285 kilograms (628 pounds) and carries five scientific payloads. Built mostly by Japan, this spacecraft will study plasma particles including high-energy ions and electrons emanating from the planet. A third spacecraft, the Mercury Surface Element (MSE), a small lander craft, was removed due to budgetary issues.

The two Mercury spacecraft are scheduled to arrive at the planet in 2025 after performing numerous flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury. The craft must launch sometime between October 5, 2018, and November 28, 2018, to reach the planet as scheduled.

Both missions as slated to fly on the Ariane 5 booster. The 52-meter (171-foot) vehicle is capable of lifting over 10,500 kilograms (23,100 pounds) to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

Currently, the JWST is undergoing low-temperature checks at NASA Johnson Space Centers Chamber A. The temperature of the chamber is steadily being reduced to approximately 20 kelvins (253 C / 424 F) the same temperature that the JWST will be when operating in space. These tests will validate that the JWST instruments can operate properly at the extremely low temperatures.

Unlike Hubble, the JWST will be positioned at the Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L2) which is 1,500,000 kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. That location is currently beyond NASAs manned space capabilities; therefore, precluding the JWST from being serviced on orbit.

The new WebbCam overlay displays the temperatures in Houston and in Chamber A, in degrees Fahrenheit, degrees Celsius, and on the Kelvin scale. Image & Caption Credit: NASA

Tagged: BepiColumbo ESA James Webb Space Telescope Lead Stories NASA

Joe Latrell is a life-long avid space enthusiast having created his own rocket company in Roswell, NM in addition to other consumer space endeavors. He continues to design, build and launch his own rockets and has a passion to see the next generation excited about the opportunities of space exploration. Joe lends his experiences from the corporate and small business arenas to organizations such as Teachers In Space, Inc. He is also actively engaged in his church investing his many skills to assist this and other non-profit endeavors.

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James Webb Space Telescope may be delayed again - SpaceFlight Insider

NASAs Hubble Telescope has captured a unique time-lapse movie of Martian moon Phobos as it orbited around the planet. In the sequence, Phobos emerges from behind the Mars and passes in front of the planet. The moon looks so small that it could easily be mistaken with a star.

Phobos is the larger of Mars two moons. It is closer to its host planet than any other moon in the solar system and it takes it just 7 hours and 39 minutes to complete an orbit.

Spotted! Mars tiny moon Phobos is seen during its orbital trek by @NASAHubble telescope. Watch the time-lapse: https://t.co/zpY505XhiF pic.twitter.com/R7TX6Xp9ho NASA (@NASA) July 20, 2017

Mars gravitational pull is drawing Phobos closer and closer. Every 100 years, the moon is approaching Mars by about 2 meters or 6.5 feet. As the moon is getting dangerously close to its planet, it could be shredded into pieces and likely form rings Saturn-like around Mars. Scientists predict that this could happen between 30 and 50 million years.

Thought Phobos is the largest moon of Mars, it is still one of smallest natural satellites in our solar system. The moon is 27 by 22 by 18 km in diameter and could easily fit inside Washington, D.C. Beltway.

The origin of Phobos is not yet fully determined. But researchers suspect that it could be caused by collision between Mars and another body.

Phobos may be a pile of rubble that is held together by a thin crust. It may have formed as dust and rocks encircling Mars were drawn together by gravity. Or, it may have experienced a more violent birth, where a large body smashing into Mars flung pieces skyward, and those pieces were brought together by gravity. Perhaps an existing moon was destroyed, reduced to the rubble that would become Phobos. NASA statement said.

The images of Phobos orbiting the Red Planet were taken on May 12, 2016 days before Mars came closest to the Earth in 11 years.

Read more:
Hubble Telescope Captures Mars Moon Phobos Orbiting Around The Planet - Gears Of Biz

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Telescope time is so expensive that astronomers usually know exactly what star or planet they are investigating.

But as an experiment NASA pointed its Hubble Telescope at a void in space which changed and provided one of the most iconic images of the cosmos.

At the time, NASA was struggling with the Hubble Telescope which was deemed a failure as it had only provided blurry images for its first five years due to a flaw in one of the mirrors the mirrors are used to take extremely long distance pictures.

However, astronauts spent three days on the satellite orbiting Earth to rectify the problem, and when they did, NASA had something to prove.

R. Williams (STScI), the HDF-S Team, and NASA/ESA

To test the new equipment, Robert Williams, former director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, decided to point the telescope at nothing.

However, what came back was a stunning image which gave the world an unprecedented view into the entire history of the universe.

In an interview with Vox, Mr Williams said: What we were doing was trying to find sort of an indiscriminate area of the sky where no observation had been made before.

AFP/Getty Images

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Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7653, which is an emission nebula located 11 000 light-years away

The image is now known as the Hubble Deep Field and is more than 12 billion lightyears deep.

A lightyear is measured by how long it takes for light to travel in a year moving at 186,000 miles per second.

So what the Hubble Deep Field image shows in the distance is how the universe looked 12 billion years ago.

GETTY

In the forefront of the image, minus a few stars which were in view, there are the galaxies which have formed over billions of years.

But in the background are irregularly shaped infant galaxies which are just beginning to take shape, so close to the dawn of time 13.8 billion years ago.

Mr Williams added: "We didnt know what was there, and that was the whole purpose of the observation, basically to get a core sample of the universe.

"You do the same thing if you're trying to understand the geology of the Earth: Pick some typical spot to drill down to try to understand exactly what the various layers of the Earth are and what they mean in terms of its geologic history."

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NASA decided to take a snap of 'nothing' and THIS is what they saw... - Express.co.uk

This artist's illustration shows the "hot Jupiter" exoplanet WASP-121b, which presents the best evidence yet of a stratosphere on an exoplanet.

A huge, superhot alien planet has a stratrosphere, like Earth does, a new study suggests.

"This result is exciting because it shows that a common trait of most of the atmospheres in our solar system a warm stratosphere also can be found in exoplanet atmospheres," study co-author Mark Marley, of NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, said in a statement.

"We can now compare processes in exoplanet atmospheres with the same processes that happen under different sets of conditions in our own solar system," Marley added. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

The research team, led by Thomas Evans of the University of Exeter in England, detected spectral signatures of water molecules in the atmosphere of WASP-121b, a gas giant that lies about 880 light-years from Earth. These signatures indicate that the temperature of the upper layer of the planet's atmosphere increases with the distance from the planet's surface. In the bottom layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, the temperature decreases with altitude, study team members said.

WASP-121b lies incredibly close to its host star, completing one orbit every 1.3 days. The planet is a "hot Jupiter"; temperatures at the top of its atmosphere reach a sizzling 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit (2,500 degrees Celsius), researchers said.

"The question [of] whether stratospheres do or do not form inhot Jupitershas been one of the major outstanding questions in exoplanet research since at least the early 2000s," Evans told Space.com. "Currently, our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres is pretty basic and limited. Every new piece of information that we are able to get represents a significant step forward."

The top of WASP-121b's atmosphere is heated to a blazing 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,500 Celsius), hot enough to boil some metals.

The discovery is also significant because it shows that atmospheres of distant exoplanets can be analyzed in detail, said Kevin Heng of the University of Bern in Switzerland, who is not a member of the study team.

"This is an important technical milestone on the road to a final goal that we all agree on, and the goal is that, in the future, we can apply the very same techniques to study atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets," Heng told Space.com. "We would like to measure transits of Earth-like planets. We would like to figure out what type of molecules are in the atmospheres, and after we do that, we would like to take the final very big step, which is to see whether these molecular signatures could indicate the presence of life."

Available technology does not yet allow such work with small, rocky exoplanets, researchers said.

"We are focusing on these big gas giants that are heated to very high temperatures due to the close proximity of their stars simply because they are the easiest to study with the current technology," Evans said. "We are just trying to understand as much about their fundamental properties as possible and refine our knowledge, and, hopefully in the decades to come, we can start pushing towards smaller and cooler planets."

WASP-121b is nearly twice the size of Jupiter. The exoplanet transits, or crosses the face of, its host star from Earth's perspective. Evans and his team were able to observe those transits using an infrared spectrograph aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

"By looking at the difference in the brightness of the system for when the planet was not behind the star and when it was behind the star, we were able to work out the brightness and the spectrum of the planet itself," Evans said. "We measured the spectrum of the planet using this method at a wavelength range which is very sensitive to the spectral signature of water molecules."

The team observed signatures of glowing water molecules, which indicated that WASP-121b's atmospheric temperatures increase with altitude, Evans said. If the temperature decreased with altitude, infrared radiation would at some point pass through a region of cooler water-gas, which would absorb the part of the spectrum responsible for the glowing effect, he explained.

There have been hints of stratospheres detected on other hot Jupiters, but the new results are the most convincing such evidence to date, Evans said.

"It's the first time that it has been done clearly for an exoplanet atmosphere, and that's why it's the strongest evidence to date for an exoplanet stratosphere," he said.

He added that researchers might be able to move closer to studying more Earth-like planets with the arrival of next-generation observatories such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and big ground-based observatories such as the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). JWST is scheduled to launch late next year, and GMT, E-ELT and TMT are expected to come online in the early to mid-2020s.

The new study was published online Wednesday (Aug. 2) in the journal Nature.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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Hubble Telescope Detects Stratosphere on Huge Alien Planet - Space.com

For Zoltan Levay staring at the night sky and feeling the vastness of it almost gives him vertigo.

Hes enamored, fascinated and obsessed with it. Space, stars, distant planets and galaxies led Levay into a career processing images from the Hubble telescope for our world to see.

It has been rewarding to be involved in a world-class scientific project, Levay said. I have training in astronomy, and its rewarding to be here on this project and work with astronomers all over the world, some of the most prominent scientists around.

Levay is also a photographer. He started the hobby when he was in high school, and its grown into a passion. He often, as you may guess, photographs landscapes and the night sky. He also photographs nature, cityscapes and anything that visually interests him.

At the Art Association on Friday those two passions meet in Levays art exhibit, Celestial-Terrestial Convergence. The exhibit will feature Levays original photography and images hes processed from the Hubble.

Im trying to relate the landscape were familiar with to what we see in the night sky and the deep universe, Levay said. Its all part of nature. Theres a whole universe out there thats just as spectacular and all part of our grand landscape.

Levay began his career in astronomy, and is now leading the Imaging Group in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Since 1993 the main part of that job is processing images from the Hubble space telescope. Hes also a member of the Hubble Heritage Team, a program within that institute focused on building a library of Hubble images.

Processing makes it sounds pedantic, but what Levay does is develop the photograph the way a camera would. When a telescope captures a photograph of a galaxy in deep space, the images are raw and devoid of color.

We use filters on the camera that pick particular colors, so we reconstruct color images from those individual exposures just like any camera does, Levay said.

He compared it to the way our eyes break apart the light and color of an image and then reconstruct it in our brain so we can see it.

We use the same principles a photographer would use to make a picture thats powerful and dramatic and interesting, yet conveys the reality of what the scene represents.

Levay said his favorite image from the Hubble has the uninspiring title NGC 1300.

I like that image because it has this very dramatic form to it, Levay said. It has irregularities on top of that so its very interesting and it shows us a great depth in the universe. It shows stars that are relatively nearby, but this galaxy is millions of light years away, so you see the whole sweep of the universe in this one image.

Its those kinds of realizations, that youre staring at the universe, that give Levay a drop-in-the-stomach, vertigo feeling.

Sometimes well produce a photograph and realize this is the first time anyone has ever seen this, he said.

The same feeling comes to him when hes deep in a national park photographing the landscape.

I was Canyonlands National Park a few months ago and these landscapes seem infinite when youre there, Levay said. Youre standing on the edge of an overlook and looking down and looking out at this dramatic landscape going on forever. You have this feeling of infinity, but you realize its a teeny tiny part of existence.

Levay hopes that the pairing of his landscapes with the images of faraway worlds will bridge the distance between the two and show people how connected the ground we stand on and space are.

I hope that people get the feeling of power and scale of whats out there in the universe and the drama of these powerful landscapes here on Earth or in space, Levay said.

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Celestial Creations - Jackson Hole News&Guide

Scoping out the scene

NASA

By Leah Crane

Its a moonshot. A signal has been spotted that might be the first moon detected outside our solar system, and researchers are gearing up to use the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm it.

David Kipping at Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have been using the Kepler Space Telescope to search for moons around other worlds for years, but they havent found any yet. Weve had candidates in the past and investigated them, and most of them have evaporated, says Kipping.

The Kepler Space Telescope finds planets by watching them pass in front of their stars, causing a dip in the stars light. The new potential moon was found in the same way as a moon orbits its planet, it leads to an extra fall in the starlight coming from behind.

Kipping and his colleagues observed these characteristic dips over three orbits of the planet around its sun-sized star, which is called Kepler-1625. Their observations suggested that a moon was there with a statistical confidence of just above 4 sigma. That means if the moon is not real, theres only around a 1 in 16,000 chance of seeing the exact same signal through a fluke in the data.

It is consistent with the signal that we might expect from a moon, but it might be consistent with other things as well, says Kipping. The system is almost 4000 light years away and relatively faint, so more observations are needed to verify that the Kepler signal was really a moon and not just a statistical blip.

Hubble is much more powerful than Kepler, so the group has proposed to point the telescope at Kepler-1625 in October, when the planet is expected to transit its star again, to get a clear observation.

We anticipate that the proposed measurements would be sufficient to confirm the first unambiguous detection of a moon beyond our Solar System, the team writes in its request for time on the Hubble telescope.

The team says the moon, if it exists, is probably the size of Neptune, and orbiting a Jupiter-sized planet. Given what we know about how planets are born, it seems unlikely this arrangement could have formed to begin with, but the large moon could have been captured by the planet at a later time.

If there really is something there, its such a faint star that itd have to be a planet-sized moon for them to have seen it transit, says David Waltham at Royal Holloway, University of London. It would be spectacularly different than anything we see in the solar system.

Because there are so many diverse moons in our solar system, most astronomers assume that there are lots of moons around more distant planets as well. I think were pretty sure that theyre going to be there, says Waltham. It would be pretty odd that there are hundreds of moons in the solar system but none anywhere else.

If Kipping and his team are able to verify this detection, as well as being the first exomoon weve ever seen, it would be a much larger moon than weve ever seen before. This indicates that there may be even more types of moon than the many weve already observed.

It would be analogous to the first exoplanet detections, which defied our prejudices from the solar system as well, says Duncan Forgan at the University of St Andrews in the UK.

Well have to wait a few months to find out for sure whether its out there.

It may prove to be nothing, or it may prove to be a really fabulous discovery, says Waltham. We wont know until the Hubble data comes back.

Journal reference: arxiv.org/abs/1707.08563

Read more: Find exomoons by watching how they warp their planets light

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First exomoon might have been spotted 4000 light years away - New Scientist