In their search for habitable worlds, astronomers have
started to consider exomoons, or those likely orbiting planets outside the
solar system. In a new study, a pair of researchers has found that exomoons are
just as likely to support life as exoplanets.
The research, conducted by René Heller of Germany's Leibniz
Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam and Rory Barnes of the University of
Washington and the NASA Astrobiology Institute, will appear in the January
issue of Astrobiology.
About 850 extrasolar planets — planets outside the solar
system — are known, and most of them are sterile gas giants, similar to
Jupiter. Only a few have a solid surface and orbit their host stars in the
habitable zone, the circumstellar belt at the right distance to potentially
allow liquid surface water and a benign environment.