The habitable zone for Earth-like exomoons orbiting Kepler-1625b

Duncan H. Forgan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The recent announcement of a Neptune-sized exomoon candidate orbiting the Jupiter-sized object Kepler-1625b has forced us to rethink our assumptions regarding both exomoons and their host exoplanets. In this paper, I describe calculations of the habitable zone for Earth-like exomoons in the orbit of Kepler-1625b under a variety of assumptions. I find that the candidate exomoon, Kepler-1625b-i, does not currently reside within the exomoon habitable zone, but may have done so when Kepler-1625 occupied the main sequence. If it were to possess its own moon (a 'moon-moon') that was Earth-like, this could potentially have been a habitable world. If other exomoons orbit Kepler-1625b, then there are a range of possible semi-major axes/eccentricities that would permit a habitable surface during the main sequence phase, while remaining dynamically stable under the perturbations of Kepler-1625b-i. This is however contingent on effective atmospheric CO2 regulation.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Astrobiology
VolumeFirst View
Early online date11 Feb 2019
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 11 Feb 2019

Keywords

  • Exomoon
  • Habitable zone
  • Kepler-1625b

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The habitable zone for Earth-like exomoons orbiting Kepler-1625b'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this