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.
All are giant gaseous worlds similar in size to Jupiter or Neptune.
While such planets would not themselves be suitable for Earth-like life, they could be circled by moons on which there are forests, oceans and living creatures.
Pandora, the fictional moon in Avatar, is just such a world.
So far only one of the 15 newly discovered objects has been confirmed as an exoplanet with 99.9% certainty. The rest still fall into the category of “candidate” planets while further evidence is collected.
The confirmed planet, known as PH2 b, orbits a sun-like star in the constellation Cygnus several hundred light years away.
Astronomer Dr Chris Lintott, from Oxford University, a member of the international team behind the discovery, said: “There’s an obsession with finding Earth-like planets but what we are discovering with planets such as PH2 b is far stranger.
“Jupiter has several large water-rich moons. Imaging dragging that system into the comfortably warm region where the Earth is. If such a planet had Earth-size moons, we’d see not Europa and Callisto but worlds with rivers, lakes and all sorts of habitats: a surprising scenario that might just be common.
“It may be that the most common habitable worlds are moons around Jupiter and Neptune-size planets rather than rocky planets as in our own solar system.”
( via independent.co.uk )