Summary
David Kipping, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, discusses his long-standing quest to discover exomoons—moons orbiting exoplanets. Despite years of research and the launch of powerful telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Kipping's team has yet to confirm the existence of any exomoons, with their latest observations yielding ambiguous results. They focused on Kepler-167e, a Jupiter-like exoplanet, hoping to detect a moon similar in size to Ganymede or Callisto.
After extensive analysis of the data collected from JWST, Kipping's team found a significant signal that suggested the presence of a large exomoon. However, they faced challenges due to systematic noise and the limitations of their models. The results indicated a potential moon, but Kipping expressed skepticism about the findings, noting that the data could also be explained by other factors, such as star spots. He emphasized the need for further observations to clarify the situation, as the current data does not meet the rigorous standards required for confirmation.
Kipping remains optimistic about future opportunities to explore exomoons, arguing that they represent an exciting frontier in astronomy. He acknowledges the emotional toll of the search but is determined to continue pursuing this elusive goal, believing that with more data and refined techniques, the discovery of exomoons is within reach.
Show Notes
Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.The day has finally come! Today we share our results using JWST to look for exomoon around Kepler-167e... buckle in...Written & presented by David Kipping→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastTHANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman, J. Murphy, J. Matters, R. Borbidge, A. Singh, S. Larter, M. Adler, B. Ross-Lee & C. Frederick.REFERENCES► Kipping et al., 2025, "A JWST Transit of a Jupiter Analog: II. A Search for Exomoons", AAS Journals, submitted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15317► Cassese et al., 2025, "A JWST Transit of a Jupiter Analog I: Constraints on the Oblateness of Kepler-167e", AAS Journals, submitted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02067MUSICLicensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist. You can see all of our past music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Bu2UQlKDb0KaeliLZUOZn0:00 Sid Acharya - Stories from the Sky1:20 Hill - There Is but One Good7:53 Falls - Life in Binary13:00 Chris Zabriskie - tories About the World That Once Was14:29 Kyle Preston - An Ocean of Quiet Confession19:13 Chris Zabriskie - We Were Never Meant to Live Here20:38 Kyle Preston - Up The Oregon Coast23:15 Hill - Turn Away26:35 Hill - To Accept the Partings That Must ComeCHAPTERS0:00 Sixteen Years3:57 Big Guns8:57 First Impressions13:00 Incogni14:29 Too Good To Be True18:54 Detective Mode23:20 Aftermath29:02 Credits & Outro#JWST #Exomoons #CoolWorlds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.Déjà vu? Professor Avi Loeb has sparked controversy by suggesting - again - that a recently detected interstellar body passing through the Solar System (3I/ATLAS) could be an alien spacecraft. Today, we dive into what he his claiming and whether it holds up - just the science.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Jason Wright for fact checking.→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastTHANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman & J. Murph.REFERENCES► Avi Loeb's blog: https://avi-loeb.medium.com► Hibberd, Crowl & Loeb 2025, "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213► Loeb 2018, "Six Strange Facts About`Oumuamua": https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.08832► Amrhein et al. 2019, "Scientists rise up against statistical significance", Nature, 567, 305-307: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9► Tonry et al. 2018: "ATLAS: A High-Cadence All-Sky Survey System", PASP, 130, 064505: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00879► Loeb, Hibberd & Crowl 2025: "Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402► Loeb & MacLeod 2024, "Interstellar meteors from the tidal disruption of rocky planetson eccentric orbits around M dwarfs", A&A, 686, A123: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.09399► Hopkins et al. 2025, "From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model", ApJL accepted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05318► Belyakov et al. 2025, "Palomar and Apache Point Spectrophotometry of Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas", RNAAS, 9, 149: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11720► Jewitt et al. 2025, "Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Interstellar Interloper 3I/ATLAS": https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02934► Dorman et al. 2013, "The Spatial Distribution of C2, C3 and NH in Comet 2P/Encke", ApJ, 778, 140: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/140/pdfMUSICLicensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist.0:00 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Two3:38 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Three6:01 Triad - Reverence7:37 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Four10:30 Jeremy Soule - Silent Footsteps13:15 Jeremy Soule - Dragonsreach15:40 Jeremy Soule - Under the Ancient Sun18:47 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Five20:46 Hill - The MeekCHAPTERS0:00 Intro4:35 Trajectory6:04 Incogni7:37 Close Encounters10:50 Speed13:24 Size23:38 Outro#CoolWorlds #3IATLAS #Interstellar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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We've been overwhelmed by the huge numbers of views, likes and questions on our "Cloaking Device" video! Alex responds to a few of your questions, please keep commenting and sharing!::More about this Video::► "A Cloaking Device for Transiting Planets" Cool Worlds video: https://youtu.be/z1Pqqf_6J9w► Kipping & Teachey (2016): "A Cloaking Device for Transiting Planets" http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.08928► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
To celebrate the release of Star Wars Rogue One this weekend, let's ask the question - could we detect the Death Star with our current telescopes? Remarkably astronomers have been thinking about the detectability of alien megastructures, such as the Death Star, for many years and we can apply some scientific thinking to get to the answer.::More about this Video::► Companion video on Martin Archer's channel, "Is the Death Star a Star?": https://youtu.be/Q4CKSekJzxk► Kipping & Teachey 2016, "A Cloaking Device for Transiting Planets": https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.08928► Cool Worlds video by Alex Teachey about our laser cloaking system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Pqqf_6J9w► Most recent results from exomoon hunting, Kipping et al. 2015, "The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK): V. A Survey of 41 Planetary Candidates for Exomoons": https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05555► Cool Worlds video update on the search for exomoons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3VQ0PdoR3M► Freeman Dyson's original paper on Dyson Spheres, "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation": http://science.sciencemag.org/content/131/3414/1667► Cool Worlds video explaining "What is an Alien Megastructure?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYHVCW3BkHU::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Space is a bleak, hostile environment. Asteroid strikes, supernovae and gamma ray bursts could wipe us out at any moment. But could certain parts of the galaxy be more dangerous than others? And could this explain why we live, when and where we live?Written and presented by Prof David Kipping, guest starring Jackson Kipping and edited by Jorge Casas.→ Support our research program: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get Stash here! https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-storeTHANK-YOU to our supporters D. Smith, M. Sloan, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, S. Hannum, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, S. Roulier, B. Smith, G. Canterbury, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, J. Alexander, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, W. Evans, D. Bansal, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp., M. Donovan, N. Corwin, M. Mangione, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, G. Genova, R. Provost, B. Sigurjonsson, G. Fullwood, B. Walford, J. Boyd, N. De Haan, J. Gillmer, R. Williams, E. Garland, A. Leishman, A. Phan Le, R. Lovely, M. Spoto, A. Steele, M. Varenka, K. Yarbrough, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, B. Pearson, S. Thayer & T. Edris.::Music::Music licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), or with permission from the artist::References::► Spinelli & Ghirlanda, 2023, The Impact of GRBs on Exoplanetary Habitability, Universe, 9, 60: https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1997/9/2/60► Gehrels et al., 2003, Ozone Depletion from Nearby Supernovae, ApJ, 585, 1169: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0211361► Thomas et al., 2006, Gamma-ray bursts and terrestrial planetary atmospheres, New. J. Phys., 8, 120: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/8/7/120► Fisher & Valenti, 2005, The Planet-Metallicity Correlation, ApJ, 622, 1102: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/428383► Buchhave & Latham, 2005, The Metallicities of Stars with and without Transiting Planets, ApJ, 808, 4: https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03557► Wang & Fisher, 2005, Revealing A Universal Planet-Metallicity Correlation For Planets of Different Sizes Around Solar-Type Stars, AJ, 149, 7: https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.7830::Music::► Chris Zabriskie - Music from Neptune Flux 0:00► Falls - Ripley 6:06► Chris Zabriskie - Music from Neptune Flux 9:32► Brad Hill - A Slowly Lifting Fog 13:53► Joachim Heinrich - Y 16:58::Chapters::00:00 Introduction02:28 Galactic Habitable Zone05:09 Supernovae10:26 GRBs15:31 Multi-Threats16:43 Planet formation18:53 Planet retention20:11 The Final Picture22:56 Outro & Credits#GalacticHabitableZone #Supernovae #GammaRayBursts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices