Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler

Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler
EstablishedDecember 30, 2011 (2011-12-30)
Research typeBasic
Field of research
Astrophysics
Principal investigator
David Kipping
StaffGáspár Bakos
Lars Buchhave
Joel Hartman
David Nesvorný
Allan Schmitt
NicknameHEK
AffiliationsCenter for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK) was a project whose aim was to search for exomoons, natural satellites of exoplanets, using data collected by the Kepler space telescope. Founded by British exomoonologist David Kipping and affiliated with the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, HEK submitted its first paper on June 30, 2011. HEK later submitted five additional papers from 2013 to 2017. In July 2017, it found some evidence for an exomoon around Kepler-1625b.