Life on Moons in the Solar System

An Envisioned Habitable Moon

Public Domain Image, created by NASA.  Original source: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/images/NEWextrasolar-medium.jpg

  • The above artist’s impression shows an imagined habitable moon in orbit around a gas giant planet in another star system: the bluish habitable moon (with liquid surface water and an atmosphere) in the foreground, the gas giant planet in its background, another moon visible to the left, and the system’s host star in the upper left.
  • Beyond our Solar System, many stars have been identified that are believed to have orbiting planets, and many planets have been identified that probably have one or more moons.  Increasingly, moons in the solar system are considered attractive candidates for potentially harboring life, such as in subsurface liquid water.  Could moons orbiting planets in other star systems also harbor life?
  • Resources include: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitability_of_natural_satellites; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exomoon.
An artist's impression of a view from above a hypothetical moon (with an atmosphere and liquid surface water) of the exoplanet Upsilon Andromedae d. Image available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UpsilonAndromedae_D_moons.jpg, User: LucianoMendez, Author: Luciano S. Méndez
Another envisioned habitable moon: an artist’s impression of a view from above a hypothetical moon (with an atmosphere and liquid surface water) of the exoplanet Upsilon Andromedae d. Image available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UpsilonAndromedae_D_moons.jpg, User: LucianoMendez, Author: Luciano S. Méndez