First Exomoon Discovered Orbiting Brown Dwarf in CD-35 2722 System

An international team of astronomers led by Kevin Hoy of the European Southern Observatory announced the first plausible detection of an exomoon, a moon-sized body comparable to Jupiter, orbiting a brown dwarf in the CD-35 2722 system. The brown dwarf, with a mass over 30 times that of Jupiter, circles a star half the mass of the Sun.

The exomoon was identified using the CRIRES+ spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope in Chile, employing the radial‑velocity method to detect subtle wobbles in the brown dwarf caused by the moon’s gravitational pull. This discovery expands the known range of planetary systems and blurs the traditional boundaries between stars, planets and moons.

Researchers note that upcoming facilities such as the Extremely Large Telescope will enable the search for smaller exomoons, offering deeper insight into planetary formation and evolution across the galaxy.