{"id":268014,"date":"2025-11-17T15:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T15:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/268014\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T15:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T15:27:10","slug":"why-exomoons-could-be-astronomys-next-big-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/268014\/","title":{"rendered":"Why exomoons could be astronomy\u2019s next big breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the first detection of an exoplanet \u2013 that is, a planet outside our solar system \u2013 in 1992, discoveries have exploded alongside advances in detection technology. As of this writing, more than <a href=\"https:\/\/aeon.co\/videos\/from-zero-to-5000-music-and-visuals-express-30-years-of-exoplanet-discoveries\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">6,000 exoplanets<\/a> have been confirmed, with the number continuing to rise. That we now know planets are extremely common \u2013 with an estimated average of roughly one per star \u2013 and that these bodies are remarkably diverse and sometimes quite Earth-like, stands as one of the great breakthroughs in the history of astronomy.<\/p>\n<p>In this discussion, held at the World Science Festival in New York City in June 2024, the US physicist Brian Greene interviews the UK astronomer David Kipping, who leads the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University in New York, which studies \u2018extrasolar planetary systems\u2019. Kipping offers a brief history of exoplanet discoveries, before turning to what he believes could mark the next major breakthrough in his field: the first confirmed discovery of an exomoon. What follows is a riveting exchange that moves between big questions about the nature of life and the Universe, and the more specialised aspects of Kipping\u2019s work, such as the difficulty of securing time on some of the world\u2019s most powerful telescopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the first detection of an exoplanet \u2013 that is, a planet outside our solar system \u2013 in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-268014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}