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Topic: Life More Likely On Moons Than Planets? Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 22 March 2018 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I subscribe to the astronomy magazine SKY AT NIGHT (UK). I enjoy the articles each month, even though 99% of them are probably too technical for my non-scientifically minded brain.

Maybe my perception is wrong, but scientists seem to be putting all their eggs in one basket, focusing on moons rather than planets for life. The current issue of SKY AT NIGHT focuses on the hunt for life on frozen moons.

It's not just in that magazine. I follow some astronomy accounts on Twitter. I'd say a good 60-70% feature articles about looking for life on moons rather than planets.

I wonder why. Have we exhausted the hunt for life on planets, leaving moons as the "final frontier"? Is there a scientific reason moons are more likely to have life than planets?

Exciting times lay ahead, I'll say that. 

EDIT: Previous topic title was a bit vague.


Edited by Robbie Parry on 22 March 2018 at 6:13pm
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Conrad Teves
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Posted: 22 March 2018 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

If you mean in the solar system, it looks like Mars is a good candidate (among planets) to find some sort of life, so the prospect isn't exhausted. Otherwise, Mercury seems a tough sell, as does Venus. The gas giants and ice giants in the outer solar system seem problematic, but they have so many moons, some with liquid water interiors that they seem much more handsome targets to go looking.  Even the asteroid Ceres appears to have a liquid water interior (a real surprise).
But in general, yeah.  Moons seem much more likely candidates just by sheer quantity.
If we discover life literally anywhere in the Solar System it'll be a big deal though, because it has statistical implications for the rest of the Universe if life can be found in more than one place here.  If there's more than two...
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 22 March 2018 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

 Conrad Teves wrote:
Moons seem much more likely candidates just by sheer quantity.

Good point. I should have thought of that.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 22 March 2018 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Mars is a good candidate, yes. And that's why we need to be very, very sure it's lifeless before we start colonizing.
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Robert Shepherd
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Posted: 23 March 2018 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

This is pure conjecture, but based on articles I've read, I think scientists now realize that moons are more tectonically active than previously thought, which means, in theory, that underneath the upper layers of ice, there could be more chance of liquid water, warmed by those same tectonic motions. Which In turn, makes the chance of water based life forms far more probable. In theory.




Edited by Robert Shepherd on 23 March 2018 at 7:09pm
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Conrad Teves
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Posted: 23 March 2018 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

>> in theory, that underneath the upper layers of ice, there could be more chance of liquid water<<

The enormous plumes of water shooting out of some them were a pretty good hint too!  :)

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