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  • Forget about exoplanets -- there could be exoMOONS with liquid oceans. Maybe even alien

  • jellyfish!

  • Hello, I'm Ian O'Neill, Space Producer for DiscoveryNews.com, and I'm commandeering the

  • DNews studio to talk a little about aliens... or more specifically, potential alien worlds

  • that could support life.

  • You may have heard all the kerfuffle about Kepler-186f. This Earth-sized exoplanet was

  • discovered orbiting its red dwarf star within the habitable zone.

  • This is exciting because IF the exoplanet is rocky and IF it has water, there's a good

  • chance that its atmosphere could keep the water in a liquid state AND possibly support

  • life. This is the first Earth-sized exoplanet discovered inside a star's habitable zone!

  • Awesome, awesome, awesome discovery!

  • Kepler-186f was detected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, but it's not really a discovery

  • of a "second Earth" -- we simply do not know if that world is as barren and cold as Mars

  • or a broiling hellhole like Venus, two worlds, by the way, that orbit the sun in its habitable

  • zone, but are FAR from being habitable.

  • So, for me, there's another really cool possibility for potential life-giving worlds out there

  • in the galaxy other than looking for habitable exoplanets, and it doesn't depend on how far

  • away from the heat of their star they are.

  • Remember the world of Pandora in the epic movie Avatar? Well, that wasn't an exoplanet,

  • it was in fact a moon orbiting a massive exoplanet. These moons are what astronomers call "exomoons."

  • Our solar system has some fascinating moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn that, may not

  • look like the science fiction rainforest moon of Pandora, but they do have vast sub-surface

  • oceans beneath their frozen crusts -- the water is heated to a liquid by tidal forces

  • squeezing the insides of the moon creating a heat source -- no sunlight required!

  • Jupiter's moon Europa, for example, has an ocean and some astrobiologists think that

  • the environment is ideal for not only microbial life to thrive, but complex organisms may

  • be evolving there.

  • If you've seen the movie Europa Report, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't seen it,

  • I won't spoil the ending. Promise.

  • Also, most recently, it was revealed that Saturn's moon Enceladus also has a subsurface

  • ocean and its internal tidal heating drives the dinky world's famous water plumes, so

  • there could be some kind of cosy life-giving environment there too.

  • Earlier this month, astronomers made the first ever detection of a moon in orbit around an

  • exoplanet. They discovered it using the cool method of "microlensing" -- that's when a

  • planet or star passes in front of a distant star, briefly amplifying the starlight. Astronomers

  • saw a little bump next to the lightcurve of the microlensing event. They believe that

  • this bump is the first direct observation of a moon in orbit around an exoplanet.

  • Although there was little doubt that exomoons do exist, it's always awesome to get some

  • observational evidence.

  • There's no word about whether or not this exomoon has any habitable qualities like Europa

  • or Enceladus, but I can't help but wonder about what may appear to be frozen exomoons

  • that actually have hidden oceans containing life.

  • Time to launch some ice drills to Europa, for, you know, research. Just don't take a

  • swim.

  • Does this get you excited for the next exomoon discovery? Tell us in the comments below,

  • and don't forget to subscribe for more DNews.

Forget about exoplanets -- there could be exoMOONS with liquid oceans. Maybe even alien

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