Mark,
The answer is yes most definitely, but there are several conditions.
Why yes? Common sense dictates that Europa will eventually revert to an Earth type atmosphere as it moves closer in to a Jupiter orbit, but this will only be sustainable for a 200ma or so window. Once it moves in further (as the inner moons get sucked in by jupiter) the water will revert to gas and it will be more like venus then start to loe its gas as it heats up and is affected the same way as IO.
Conditions:
1) Duration may be far too short for higher life forms life as we know it to develop
2) radiation is a problem
3) the size of the jovian planet places severe restrictions
4) most would be tidally locked (so could theoretically exist around any large planet) - but one side being night and the other perpetual daylight makes it hard for normal geological processes (as we know them to occur). The moon would probably revert to an ice moon.
5) the amount of h2o present - will either end up like as a desert or as a water world except where plate tectonics occurs (and most moons are too small to sustain that - they will probably over heat)
Space/Science » in reply to Earthlike Moons? Marcia/Alex/Nick?
Re: Earthlike Moons? yes certainly
