Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to How many moons might be habitable?

Big enough moons

Hi All

Big moons are probably pretty hard to make - Jupiter masses 318 times Earth yet its largest moon is just 0.02 Earth masses. Saturn and Uranus have a similar set of moons and they're all dinky - except Titan, which is probably a capture just like Triton.

At least in the normal planet-making scenario that is. According to the Capture Theory moons are made as the proto-planets are tidally distorted during their first orbit - the distortion puts moon material into orbit around the planet. The orbiting material then forms a disk that the moons form out of by accretion.

According to the theory Mercury, Mars, (probably) Theia, maybe Artemis, formed as moons of the innermost planets before they collided and formed Earth & Venus out of their remnant cores. As Planets A & B were 5 and 30 Earth masses with a perihelion of 2.6 AU I'd say quite large moons might be possible in the new system.

But not too large, or else the planet/moons system will be a tad chaotic as the moons pull the planet out of its semi-central position. Mars-mass moons might be reasonable, or perhaps a touch smaller. Whether any would retain atmospheres so close to the star is anyone's guess.

Adam

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