A giant satellite, 2.6 times the size of Earth, was discovered near the exoplanet Kepler-1708b, writes Nature Astronomy.
“Astronomers have already discovered more than 10 thousand exoplanets. At the same time, the search for exosatellites remains a difficult task due to the low sensitivity of telescopes. Therefore, it is not surprising that we were the first to find such unusual satellites as Kepler-1625b-i and Kepler-1708b-i, since they are much easier to detect because of their gigantic size,” explained Columbia University professor David Kipping.
It is noted that Kipping and his colleagues hope that further observations using the Hubble and James Webb telescopes will help confirm the existence of this exosatellite, as well as to understand whether it is an unusually large rocky planet or a smaller copy of Neptune.
Earlier it was reported that, according to preliminary calculations, a dangerous approach of the asteroid Apophis to the Earth may occur on April 5, 2095, but currently the probability of a collision is only 0.02%.
It was also reported that comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) flew at the minimum distance from the Sun on January 3 and left the Solar System.