The hunt for alien worlds
The leading candidates
The great exomoon debate
The future of alien moon hunting
YOUR GOAL
Master of The search for our first alien moon
007skaty The Exomoon Debate
Are we seeing a giant exomoon, or just a shadow on the starlight's edge?
007skaty Advanced statistical modeling separates genuine exomoon signals from the periodic dips in starlight caused by rotating starspots
007skaty Skeptics and discoverers clashed over how algorithms filter raw Kepler telescope data.
007skaty Track dips in starlight to discover how scientists hunt for the first alien moon.
Starspot trickery: Some starspots can cover up to fifty percent of a star's surface, easily creating false signals that look like giant transiting planets or moons.
A natural satellite that orbits a planet located outside of our solar system. In 2023, astronomer René Heller challenged David Kipping's proposed discoveries of two candidate satellites.
What scientific process is highlighted by the ongoing debate over Kepler-1625b I and Kepler-1708b I?
What is the term for a false signal in astronomical data that appears to be a real object but is actually just random noise?
How did David Kipping and Alex Teachey respond to the 2023 paper that claimed their exomoon discoveries were refuted?
What percentage of data did skeptics remove from their analysis of Kepler-1625b, which Kipping and Teachey argued weakened the signal?
Which German research institution led the 2023/2024 study that challenged the existence of the two top exomoon candidates?
Why do starspots (cool, dark patches on a star's surface) pose a major challenge for finding exomoons?
What is 'red noise' in telescope data, which astronomers worry might be mistaken for an exomoon transit?