Breakthrough Tracker record

A planetary-mass exosatellite candidate around CD-35 2722 B

High-resolution radial-velocity monitoring with VLT/CRIRES+ found an approximately 170-day wobble in the young brown dwarf CD-35 2722 B. The preferred interpretation includes an orbiting companion with a minimum mass of about 0.9 Jupiter masses.

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Stable ID
cd-35-2722-b-exosatellite-2026
Revision
cd-35-2722-b-exosatellite-2026.v1
Field
Astronomy · Exoplanets and substellar systems
Evidence
Tier 1 · Peer reviewed: Yes
Record state
Provisional · Peer-reviewed candidate; confirmation pending
Last checked

AI role

No substantive AI role was disclosed in the inspected paper or official research summary.

Record details

Problem or result
Detecting a natural satellite outside the Solar System
Authors
Kevin Hoy, Alice Zurlo, P. A. Peña R. et al.
Institutions
European Southern Observatory; Universidad Diego Portales; Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons; collaborating observatories
Result date
Published July 22, 2026

Why it matters

The result is strong peer-reviewed evidence for a planetary-mass satellite around an extrasolar substellar object and demonstrates a radial-velocity route to satellite systems beyond the Solar System.

Limits

The host is a brown dwarf orbiting a star, not a planet, so calling the object an exomoon is partly definitional. The satellite interpretation still needs independent or astrometric confirmation, and radial velocity supplies a minimum rather than a true mass.

Sources

  1. Primary: Nature, Planetary-mass exosatellite detected around the substellar companion of a star
  2. Primary: Initial pre-peer-review manuscript
  3. Independent: European Southern Observatory research summary
  4. Independent: Physics World analysis

Correction and revision history

  1. July 22, 2026 — Added from the final peer-reviewed Nature paper. Values follow the published article rather than the earlier preprint; the satellite interpretation remains provisional pending independent confirmation.

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