Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Could moons like Pandora really exist ?


Saru

Recommended Posts

Exotic alien life could potentially thrive on habitable moons around distant planets, say scientists.

Moons like the one depicted in the film Avatar may be among the most common places to find alien life, scientists believe. Astronomers came to the conclusion after identifying up to 15 new planets orbiting the life-friendly "habitable zones" of stars.

arrow3.gifRead more...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

If Europa is anything to go by....but I could say they do and probably be right considering the size of our universe.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Europa is anything to go by....but I could say they do and probably be right considering the size of our universe.

My thoughts exactly.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Europa is anything to go by....

Except that Europa isn't in the habitable zone, it's source of heat is gravitational interactions with Jupiter. The article is about moons with in the "Goldilocks" zone of their parent star.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Except that Europa isn't in the habitable zone, it's source of heat is gravitational interactions with Jupiter. The article is about moons with in the "Goldilocks" zone of their parent star.

To be fair, whether it's source of heat is gravitational or solar, does it really matter so long as it makes the place "livable" for some form of life or another?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since a number of Jovian (Jupiter sized) planets have been discovered quite near their parent stars, its not unreasonable that some of them would be in the habitable zones. If the planets are, so are their moons. They would receive about as much energy from their star, as Earth does from the Sun. It wouldn't even matter that they were tidally locked, always having the same side facing the planet. Their orbits around the planet would expose most of their surfaces to the rays of their star. One 'day' would consist of one orbit around the planet. Night would be when the planet shaded the moon from the star.

Edited by bison
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since a number of Jovian (Jupiter sized) planets have been discovered quite near their parent stars, its not unreasonable that some of them would be in the habitable zones. If the planets are, so are their moons. They would receive about as much energy from their star, as Earth does from the Sun. It wouldn't even matter that they were tidally locked, always having the same side facing the planet. Their orbits around the planet would expose most of their surfaces to the rays of their star. One 'day' would consist of one orbit around the planet. Night would be when the planet shaded the moon from the star.

That is one example of possible optimum conditions but unfortunately the probability of a moon orbiting a planet orbiting a sun in such a way as to be able to sustain life is very low.

Finding a planet orbiting only a sun with conditions to support life is hard enough without throwing in countless other variables. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True Timonthy..... but the probability increases with quantity. With an estimated 100 Billion planets in our galaxy alone, and over 100 billion galaxies believed to be within our visible range...... that is potentially 10,000 quadrillion planets or (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) within our galaxies view. If only 0.00000000000001% of those planets had optimal life conditions that is still 1 million planets that could hold life. And if each of those planets were identical to Earth and contained a similar number of human-like creatures..... that would potentially be 7000 trillion intelligent lifeforms in the universe!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

True Timonthy..... but the probability increases with quantity. With an estimated 100 Billion planets in our galaxy alone, and over 100 billion galaxies believed to be within our visible range...... that is potentially 10,000 quadrillion planets or (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) within our galaxies view. If only 0.00000000000001% of those planets had optimal life conditions that is still 1 million planets that could hold life. And if each of those planets were identical to Earth and contained a similar number of human-like creatures..... that would potentially be 7000 trillion intelligent lifeforms in the universe!

Excellent post! The certainty of other intelligent life forms in our universe is 100%.

But when and where they exist/existed is the question.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True Timonthy..... but the probability increases with quantity. With an estimated 100 Billion planets in our galaxy alone, and over 100 billion galaxies believed to be within our visible range...... that is potentially 10,000 quadrillion planets or (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) within our galaxies view. If only 0.00000000000001% of those planets had optimal life conditions that is still 1 million planets that could hold life. And if each of those planets were identical to Earth and contained a similar number of human-like creatures..... that would potentially be 7000 trillion intelligent lifeforms in the universe!

Oh I am not in disagreement at all, the probability is 1! It would be very sad if we're we're the only life in the universe...

Was just referring to the trivial brush-off-the-shoulder that it's easy for a planet to have habitable conditions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It wouldn't even matter that they were tidally locked, always having the same side facing the planet. Their orbits around the planet would expose most of their surfaces to the rays of their star. One 'day' would consist of one orbit around the planet.

This part I totally agree with.

Night would be when the planet shaded the moon from the star.

This part, however, is wrong. Night would still be when a given point on the moon was facing away from the sun, the same as for anyother planet, satellite, asteroid, etcetera.

However there would be additional periods of darkness when the moon passed through the shadow of the planet it was orbiting. This is not night, it is an eclipse. How often this happened would depend on the size of the parent planet, the distance between planet and moon and the orbital inclination of the moon.

It is the same situation we see on our moon. Any given point on the lunar surface experiences day and night. However occasionally the moon passes through the shadow of the Earth. We call it a Lunar Eclipse, however from the point of view of an observer on the Moon it is a total eclipse of the Sun by the Earth.

Two things to note:

Firstly, if the satellite is tidally locked then only the planet facing side can experience the eclipse.

Secondly, if the parent planet has a substantial atmosphere then the eclipse will not result in total darkness on the moon's surface. The planetary atmosphere will refract some light. This is the reason the Moon can still be seen (albeit an eerie red in colour) when it is in the Earth's shadow. From the Moon there would be a ring of red light around the dark side of the Earth. I suspect it would be beautiful to see and I hope one day a mission will return just such a picture from the lunar surface.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're quite right, of course, about the occurrence of night. My mistake. Thanks for correcting it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

True Timonthy..... but the probability increases with quantity. With an estimated 100 Billion planets in our galaxy alone, and over 100 billion galaxies believed to be within our visible range...... that is potentially 10,000 quadrillion planets or (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) within our galaxies view. If only 0.00000000000001% of those planets had optimal life conditions that is still 1 million planets that could hold life. And if each of those planets were identical to Earth and contained a similar number of human-like creatures..... that would potentially be 7000 trillion intelligent lifeforms in the universe!

Yeah there would have to be some other life somewhere according to those numbers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Could you imagine life on Europa?

Let's assume that current theories about large level of oxygen culminating inside Europe's huge ocean are correct. Let's even allow ourselves to dream that there are some sort of intelligent life forms there, although aquatic. They would never know that there is a universe above. For them, that idea would be as alien as other dimensions are to use right now. They're world would resolve around two "lands" - the outer shell, that is Europa's ice crust, as thick as perhaps tens of kilometres, and perhaps covered with land from it's inner side as a result of volcanic activity of Europa. The other side will be Europa's "real" surface - that is, the bottom of it's vast ocean. They would know nothing about our sun, not even about Jupiter. As a result of their aquatic environment they would also be unable to detect Jupiter's immense gravity, without some sort of devices. This world would truly be amazing to see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a result of their aquatic environment they would also be unable to detect Jupiter's immense gravity, without some sort of devices.

Here in lies a problem for us. We are likely to be able to explore Europa in the coming decades (and the other moons within our solar system). We will know for sure whether life exists on them or not, but the universe could be teeming with life as you have described it, countless millions of ice covered worlds with intelligent, aquatic life forms, and just as they know nothing about the universe above the ice, we will never know of their existence below it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Such aquatic beings, lacking the distractions of a complex material culture, might become the spiritual masters of the universe. A star-faring race might discover them, and offer to transport them wherever they might wish to go, carrying their wisdom with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I cant believe questions like this are still being asked by scientist,in a infinite universe everything is possible in millions of different combinations.We just need to work on getting our technology up to interstellar abilities then we can start to blow our own minds with what all we will find!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a bias in the discovery of exo-planets in favor of large planets close to the star. As time passes this bias will decrease and we will find more and more earth-sized planets. There is every reason to think that they should be more common in the habitable zones of stars.

Unless for some reason they migrate inward, the big planets tend to form further out; that we have found so many close in is just a result of the bias mentioned above. The majority are going to turn out, if the statistics we have now prove out, to be much more similar to our own system.

Therefore while satellites orbiting giant planets in the habitable zone will occur, this should probably not turn out to be the most common. Solitary planets around the size of the earth will be more common and life forms inhabiting same should be likewise.

There are at present many unanswered questions before we can make even reasonably good guesses at how many habitable planets exist. Do they need to be double planet systems like earth-moon? Can a satellite gravitationally locked to its primary be habitable? What about those where the habitable zone is much closer in (red dwarfs -- by far the most common type of star) so that any planets may be gravitationally locked and exposed to frequent solar outbursts? Does the star itself have to be solitary? If all of these are negatives, habitable planets may be quite rare; if not, they may be abundant.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cant believe questions like this are still being asked by scientist,in a infinite universe everything is possible in millions of different combinations.We just need to work on getting our technology up to interstellar abilities then we can start to blow our own minds with what all we will find!

This is clearly true except that although the universe may be infinite (I think it almost certainly is in several ways), our abilities are limited. We are not infinite beings, and at some point our technology may just simply run out of things to manipulate.

We already see hints of this in our physics and astronomy. There is an absolute limit on how fast we can go in space, on how far out we can see. The theories that describe fundamental particles are now reaching the point where there is no conceivable technology to test them.

With tremendous investment we could probably get to nearby stars, and even colonize a few. Then a few thousand years on we might reach more stars, eventually, in a few million years, colonizing much of the galaxy. That is a small part of the universe, and in that amount of time the various branches of humanity moving outward would diverge evolutionarily. This is of course assuming we didn't encounter others, in which case all bets are off.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If only we could take the funding for militaries around the world and put it to expanding our presence galactically we could be much more advanced,much further along as a species

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If only we could take the funding for militaries around the world and put it to expanding our presence galactically we could be much more advanced,much further along as a species

I don't know. Of course we want to see the military funding reduced, but the money would go to other things, with only maybe a little extra going to space exploration. In fact, it may be military things that has gotten us to do as much as we have.

I think we will require a major stimulus, such as a clear demonstration that "they" exist, to get things really going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed frank,and maybe its best we are stuck here for awhile till we can learn to better ourselves so we dont go out and pollute the galaxy with insanity lol

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.