US EditionNo sun, no problem? How life could thrive on moons of starless 'rogue' planets
Simulations show tidal heating and dense hydrogen atmospheres could keep exomoons around rogue planets habitable with liquid water for up to 4.3 billion years.
4 Articles
4 Articles
Are Rogue Exomoons the Newest Frontier in the Search for Habitability?
There may be as many rogue planets or free-floating planets in the Milky Way as there are stars. If there are billions of these worlds, some of them have likely held onto their moons. New research reveals a pathway to habitability for these rogue exomoons.
The search for life outside the Earth could expand into dark regions of the universe. A scientific study indicated that certain moons orbiting wandering planets could maintain oceans of liquid water for up to 4.3 billion years. The research was published on March 11 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The work was done by scientists from the Cluster of Excellence ORIGINS of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LM…
New research suggests that a previously underexplored type of celestial body may be a surprising candidate in the search for life: exomoons orbiting rogue planets. These moons, which float in interstellar space without a sun to heat them, could, under certain evolutionary conditions, maintain liquid water for billions of years. Such a scenario would open the possibility, at least theoretically, for the emergence of complex life. The Enigma of Ro…
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