Moons orbiting free-floating planets, planets drifting through space without a parent star, might seem like unlikely candidates for life. However, a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the ...

White dwarfs are the compact remnants of stars that have stopped nuclear burning, a fate that will eventually befall our sun. These extremely dense objects are degenerate stars because their structure ...

A new study suggests that moons orbiting free-floating planets, with dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating, could ...

Liquid water is considered essential for life. Surprisingly, however, stable conditions that are conducive to life could ...

"Tidal heating plays an important role in the heating and orbital evolution of celestial bodies," said Alex Hayes, professor of astronomy. "It provides the warmth necessary to form and sustain ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. Io, the innermost giant moon of Jupiter, may not have a ...

Moons orbiting free-floating planets can sustain liquid oceans for up to 4.3 billion years through hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating. These conditions could support life, akin to early Earth.

We perform numerical simulations of the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven exoplanets orbiting a nearby M dwarf, starting with a previously suggested stable configuration. The long-term stability of this ...

Artist's impression of what the Moon looked like during the tidal-heating event. There would have been intense volcanic activity everywhere. The early Earth would have loomed much larger in the sky ...