Astronomers have discovered an unusual celestial body that has reignited debates regarding the categories of objects outside the Solar System. The object discovered in the CD-35 2722 system does not orbit directly around a star or a planet.
“Elchi” reports that in a study conducted using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and published in the journal Nature, researchers have decided to temporarily name this discovered object an “exosatellite”.
The structure orbiting an object known as a “brown dwarf” that revolves around a star breaks the mold.
Brown dwarfs are defined as celestial bodies that are too small to be stars but too large to be planets.
Solar System terminology is lacking
Kevin Luhman, one of the study’s authors, stated while evaluating the system’s structure, “Even though this celestial body is large enough to be a planet, it does not orbit directly around a star.
It orbits around another object that is orbiting a star. We want to call it a moon because it is the third link in the system, but it looks nothing like the rocky moons we know.” Astrophysicist Alice Zurlo, who participated in the study, stated that while the boundaries between planets, stars, and moons are clear in the Solar System, all these concepts are intertwined in this system.
To date, astronomers have discovered more than 6,000 exoplanets, but they have not yet found a confirmed moon outside the Solar System.
If this discovery in the CD-35 2722 system is confirmed, it will be recorded as the first moon discovery outside the Solar System.
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