Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2018

38 ASTROBIOLOGY One of the new frontiers of astrobiology is the search for habitable moons beyond the Solar System. For some years now, a few projects have been carried out to identify natural satellites in orbit around giant planets, which in turn orbit in the habitable zone of stars not very dissimilar to the Sun. So far, we have had only a vague percep- tion of those moons, but finally, there is now an up-and-coming can- didate that could officially become our first identified exomoon. The first exo validation m by Michele Ferrara revised by Damian G. Allis NASA Solar System Ambassador NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018