Scientists have long speculated about the possible existence of other moons outside our solar system. Now, NASA has announced that it has discovered the first signs of what appears to be an extrasolar moon or exomoon .
The unexpected discovery has been possible thanks to the observation using a technique called gravitational microlensing that takes advantage of the accidental alignments between the stars to deepen the search for objects, thanks to the fact that the star in the foreground passes between us and a more distant star, the nearest star, it can act as a magnifying glass to focus and brighten the light of the farthest star .
The exomoon candidate could be a small star surrounded by a planet about 18 times the mass of Earth. According to experts, at the moment it is impossible to confirm its presence , but it opens the door to new discoveries so pleasantly fortuitous.
This is the first time that the first symptoms of an exomoon have been found , since until now, no space mission (not even Kepler) has been able to locate one. The finding has been published in the Astrophysical Journal .
