According to Space.com, scientists who have discovered a large number of extra solar planets using NASA's Kepler space telescope are hoping to locate moons of some of these planets, mostly gas giants, that might bear life.
How many gas giants lay within the habitable zones of their star systems?
So far the Kepler has detected 37 Neptune sized planets and 10 Jupiter sized planets that orbit their stars in the habitable zone. The habitable zone is defined as being far enough away from the star to allow for liquid water. While the gas giants themselves cannot have liquid water, an Earth-sized moon orbiting them might.
How do scientists propose to detect moons circling extra solar planets?
The process is similar to detecting a planet, which is to measure how much the light of a star dips as it passes between it and the Kepler. David Kipping, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has developed a model for detecting such moons. When a moon orbits behind a planet that is passing between its star and the Kepler, a slight dip in light is detected. The model is useful for detecting moons that orbit in the plane of the planet's orbit around its star as well as an inclined orbit.
What sort of moon would be a good candidate for life?
It would have to orbit a planet within the habitable zone and be a rocky world at least one third the mass of the Earth. Any smaller and the rocky world would be more like Mars, with no breathable atmosphere and no surface water to speak of.
Are there any analogous moons in our own solar system that would fit this model?
There are not. Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system, orbiting Jupiter, has only two percent of the mass of Earth. While it and other moons, such as Europa, have water, such moons would not be able to retain an atmosphere or liquid water were they in the habitable zone of our solar system.
What would life be like on a habitable moon of a gas giant?
Science Daily, feeding off speculation from the fictional world of Pandora, depicted as orbiting a gas giant, in the film "Avatar," suggests that a life bearing moon orbiting a gas giant would be very possible. However its day/night cycle would be different than that of Earth's as it would be "tidally locked" to its parent world, with one side facing toward it and one facing away from it. Thus the moon's day would be the same as the period of its orbit around its planet. How that would affect the evolution of life is a matter currently of endless speculation.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the LA Times, and The Weekly Standard.
best buy we bought a zoo we bought a zoo ipad accessories derrick rose port charlotte florida kit homes
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.