{"id":195636,"date":"2026-07-22T13:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=195636"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:00:11","slug":"scientists-discover-bizarre-planetary-system-unlike-anything-in-our-solar-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=195636","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover bizarre planetary system unlike anything in our solar system"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"An<\/picture><\/div>\n

\n An artist\u2019s impression shows the system around the star CD-35 2722, with the newly found moon-like object at the centre.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n ESO\/M. KORNMESSER\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Scientists are documenting a
\nplanetary system in the Milky Way galaxy that is so starkly
\ndissimilar to our own solar system \u200cthat they are struggling to
\nfind the proper terminology to describe it.<\/p>\n

The system includes a red dwarf \u200bstar about 40% of the mass
\nof our sun that is orbited by a brown dwarf, a \u2060celestial body
\nthat blurs the line between planet and star. The brown dwarf, in
\nturn, is orbited by a gaseous Jupiter-sized world, newly
\ndiscovered using the European Southern Observatory’s Chile-based
\nVery Large Telescope.<\/p>\n

Using our solar system as a definitional frame of reference,
\na body that orbits another body that \u200corbits a star should be
\ncalled a moon \u2014 or in this case an exomoon, because it is beyond
\nour solar system. But the object that orbits the brown dwarf is
\nunlike any of the many moons in \u200cour solar system \u2014 all of which
\nare relatively small rocky or icy worlds \u2014 in terms of
\ncomposition and size.<\/p>\n

So what \u200cshould \u2060we call it?<\/p>\n

“This will certainly be a matter of debate. In general, most
\nastronomers are fine with \u2060the term exosatellite, at least as a
\nplaceholder until we formally adopt definitions for objects like
\nthe one we found,” said Kevin Hoy, a doctoral student in
\nastrophysics at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile also
\naffiliated with the exomoon research group YEMS, lead author of
\nthe study published in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n

“We’re really hitting \u200bthe limits of how far we can stretch
\nthe \u200cwords we invented to describe the solar system to describe
\nother systems in this case,” Hoy said.<\/p>\n

This system is about 71 light-years away from Earth. A
\nlight-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion
\nmiles (9.5 trillion km).<\/p>\n

The exosatellite possesses at least 90% of the mass of
\nJupiter, the gas giant that is our solar system’s largest
\nplanet. It \u200ccompletes an orbit of the brown dwarf every 170 days
\nat a distance about a fifth of that \u200bseparating Earth and the
\nsun.<\/p>\n

‘A PANDORA’S BOX’<\/h2>\n

“I think this discovery has opened a Pandora’s box for the
\nscientific community. This type of object is completely new and
\nunusual, truly different from what we are familiar \u2060with in our
\nsolar system. Now we will have to understand, through
\ntheoretical models, how these kinds of objects form and whether
\nthey are common or not,” said study co-author Alice Zurlo, a
\nUniversidad Diego Portales astrophysicist and YEMS director.<\/p>\n

“We deliberately chose not to call \u200cit a moon. That’s because
\nthis object is unlike any moon in our solar system. It’s much
\nmore massive, and it doesn’t orbit a planet \u2014 it orbits a brown
\ndwarf, an object that’s somewhere between a planet and a star.
\nSince we’ve never seen a system quite like this before, we’re
\nstill figuring out the best way to describe it,” Zurlo said.<\/p>\n

While more than 6,300 exoplanets \u2014 as planets outside our
\nsolar system are known \u2014 have been discovered, finding exomoons
\nhas proven more challenging, with only a few good candidates
\nidentified.<\/p>\n

The researchers are trying to figure out the origins of the
\nexosatellite.<\/p>\n

“It may have formed from the disk of \u200cgas and dust around the
\nbrown dwarf, just as planets form around stars. Or it may have
\nbeen captured (gravitationally) by the brown dwarf later on,”
\nZurlo said.<\/p>\n

A \u200bbrown dwarf is neither a star nor a planet, but something
\nin between. They could be considered aspiring stars that during
\ntheir formative stages did not reach the mass necessary to
\nignite nuclear fusion at \u2060their core like a star. But they are
\nmore massive than the biggest planets.<\/p>\n

The one in this system is about 33 times \u2060more massive, 50%
\nlarger in size and much hotter than Jupiter.<\/p>\n

“Because the system is very young, the brown dwarf is still
\nshining with the heat left from its formation,” Zurlo said.<\/p>\n

Since the first detection of exoplanets in \u200cthe 1990s,
\nscientists have spotted a wide variety of planetary systems,
\nsome built much like our own and others quite different. The one
\nexamined in the new research is an outlier.<\/p>\n

“Yep, this system is definitely weird. There was likely a
\npretty \u200bchaotic dynamical history that left it in its current
\nstate, but it’s really hard to tell exactly what kind of chaos
\nit went through,” Hoy said.<\/p>\n

Published on July 22, 2026 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
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An artist\u2019s impression shows the system around the star CD-35 2722, with the newly found moon-like object at the centre. | Photo Credit: ESO\/M. KORNMESSER Scientists are documenting a planetary system in the Milky Way galaxy that is so starkly dissimilar to our own solar system \u200cthat they are struggling to find the proper terminology…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-22T153725Z_252599248_RC2QZKAIATRM_RTRMADP_3_SPACE-EXOSATELLITE.JPG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":194014,"url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=194014","url_meta":{"origin":195636,"position":0},"title":"A meteorite crashed through a bedroom ceiling and may hold clues to the origins of life","author":"Ajay Kumar Verma","date":"July 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A meteorite that crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home is helping scientists unlock new secrets about ancient water in our solar system. 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