Kevin Hoy's team discovers Jupiter-sized companion in CD-35 2722 system
Technology
Astronomers just found something pretty cool: a Jupiter-sized object orbiting a brown dwarf, which itself circles a small star, all in the CD-35 2722 system.
This kind of cosmic "nesting doll" setup hasn't been seen before, and the discovery was led by Kevin Hoy's team using the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Detected by radial velocity, called 'exosatellite'
The team used changes in light (the radial velocity technique) to spot this massive companion tugging on the brown dwarf.
Scientists are calling it an "exosatellite" because it doesn't fit neatly into our usual categories for planets or moons.
As Hoy's team points out, finds like this could shake up how we define and name worlds beyond our solar system, so astronomers might need to rethink the terminology for these worlds.