• DOI:10.1038/s41550-021-01539-1
• Corpus ID: 245906142

An exomoon survey of 70 cool giant exoplanets and the new candidate Kepler-1708 b-i

@article{Kipping2022AnES,
  title={An exomoon survey of 70 cool giant exoplanets and the new candidate Kepler-1708 b-i},
  author={David M. Kipping and Stephen T. Bryson and Christopher J. Burke and Jessie L. Christiansen and Kevin K. Hardegree-Ullman and Billy L. Quarles and Brad Hansen and Judit Szul'agyi and Alex Teachey},
  journal={Nature Astronomy},
  year={2022},
  volume={6},
  pages={367 - 380}
}

• D. Kipping, S. Bryson, +6 authors A. Teachey
• Published 12 January 2022
• Physics, Geology
• Nature Astronomy

Exomoons represent a crucial missing puzzle piece in our efforts to understand extrasolar planetary systems. To address this deficiency, we here describe an exomoon survey of 70 cool, giant transiting exoplanet candidates found by Kepler. We identify only one exhibiting a moon-like signal that passes a battery of vetting tests: Kepler-1708 b. We show that Kepler-1708 b is a statistically validated Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a Sun-like quiescent star at 1.6 au. The signal of the exomoon candidate, Kepler-1708 b-i, is a 4.8 σ effect and is persistent across different instrumental detrending methods, with a 1% false-positive probability via injection–recovery. Kepler-1708 b-i is ~2.6 Earth radii and is located in an approximately coplanar orbit at ~12 planetary radii from its ~1.6 au Jupiter-sized host. Future observations will be necessary to validate or reject the candidate. A 4.8 σ exomoon candidate is found around gas giant Kepler-1708 b, which orbits at 1.6 au around its star. It is the only candidate from a dedicated survey that analysed 70 cool giant exoplanets discovered by Kepler. Kepler-1708 b-i has a radius of 2.6 Earth radii and orbits its planet at 12 planetary radii.