https://briankoberlein.com/2015/05/12/shes-so-unusual/ Brian Koberlein Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:22:39 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.3 https://briankoberlein.com/2015/05/12/shes-so-unusual/#comment-2350 Wed, 13 May 2015 15:14:49 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4790#comment-2350 Perhaps most of the life in the universe is in underwater oceans in icy moons, powered by tidal forces and not by starlight.

]]> https://briankoberlein.com/2015/05/12/shes-so-unusual/#comment-2348 Tue, 12 May 2015 18:13:41 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4790#comment-2348 Hi Arturo, Titan is shielded by Saturn’s enormous magnetic field :
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14717-saturn-magnetises-its-moon-titan.html
I like the hypothesis that some exomoons are habitable. I doubt that they are very common because habitability would require a large number of physical characteristics to be just right, but we know that life on Earth (as a whole) is very good at colonizing a wide variety of environments.

]]> https://briankoberlein.com/2015/05/12/shes-so-unusual/#comment-2347 Tue, 12 May 2015 15:54:18 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4790#comment-2347 On the topic of habitable moons orbiting gas giants close to their stars, I remember reading some study that talked about the magnetic fields of those moons and how they would most likely be inhospitable to life due to the lack of it.
In the study they modeled Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune-like planets with varied magnetic fields and then placed moons around each to see if they would be sufficiently protected. If I recall correctly, the moons either had to be too close to the gas giant to be shielded, or they would drift away from protection at some point. The overall result was that it is very unlikely to have a habitable moon.

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