Tidally detached exomoon
Tidally detached exomoons, also known as orphaned exomoons or ploonets, are hypothetical exoplanets that were formerly exomoons of another planet, before being ejected from their orbits around their parent planets by tidal forces during planetary migration, and becoming planets in their own right. , no tidally detached moons have yet been definitively detected, but they are believed to be likely to exist around other stars, and potentially detectable by photometric methods. Researchers at Columbia University have suggested that a disrupting detached exomoon may be causing the unusual fluctuations in brightness exhibited by Tabby's Star. The term "ploonet , used by a 2019 paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society", received attention from mainstream media sources, with CNET calling it "charmingly goofy". The unusual dimming of Tabby's Star may be due to a disintegrating "ploonet". Origin of the word "ploonet". "Ploonet" is a blend of the words "planet" and "moon", and it has been coined in 2019 by a research team.