Astronomers may have found the first moon beyond our Solar System

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorAstronomers may have found the first moon ever detected beyond our Solar System, and it orbits a brown dwarf that itself circles a star, ScienceDaily reports.

2. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorA moon, orbiting a brown dwarf, orbiting a star. Somewhere a genealogist is weeping with joy.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt's at least as massive as Jupiter. The brown dwarf it orbits is about thirty-seven times Jupiter's mass.

4. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorBiggest moon in history, and it still hasn't been allowed to be a moon. That's what I call a pipeline.

5. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe researchers won't call it a moon yet. For now they say exosatellite, because it is decidedly unmoon-like.

6. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorUnmoon-like.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe lead author, Kevin Hoy, says the system is "super weird." And that it's hard to define using words like planet and moon.

8. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThey found it, and they're being so careful with it.

9. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSix thousand planets found outside our system and never one confident moon, and now one shows up and they're gentle about the label.

10. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThe study in Nature calls it a promising detection, not a confirmed one, and I think that's a very healthy way to introduce yourself.

11. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA promising detection. Seventy-three light-years away and nobody wants to hurt its feelings.

12. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorExosatellite. Unmoon-like, promising, not confirmed. Hank, that's my whole performance review.