Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2018

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 that govern moon formation processes and their extension to unknown scenarios. Kipping and Teachey are planning to ob- serve a new transit in 2019 and, on that oc- casion, a definitive answer may come about the existence of the candidate moon. If it is confirmed, we will take another step for- ward in the discovery of new habitable worlds, even if, in the specific case of Ke- pler-1625b-I, we likely cannot talk about habitability. It is precisely the oversized moons that researchers expect to discover first inside other stars’ habitable zones. The largest telescopes that will become opera- tional from 2019 onward, starting from the James Webb Space Telescope, will be able to confirm the existence of potentially hab- itable moons, more or less the size of Earth. It is estimated that millions of moons suit- able for the development of life can exist in the galaxy. Orbiting around a giant planet is not necessarily harmful. The tidal warm- ing resulting from the gravitational inter- action with the giant planet could, for example, extend the lifetime of the moon’s geological activities to the benefit of main- taining a potentially livable environment. It would be curious to discover the first twin of the Earth in orbit around another planet, rather than around another sun! !