physics4me

This illustration shows a potential satellite-forming impact on a proto-planet. Credit: Michael Elser, University of Zurich

Sebastian Elser, Prof. Ben Moore and Dr. Joachim Stadel of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in cooperation with Ryuji Morishima of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tried to estimate how common Earth-Moon planetary systems are. They have found that 1 in 12 Earth-like planets probably hosts a Moon-like satellite. Since the Moon might have played an important role in the history of life on Earth, this estimate is important concerning the search for habitable planets….. Read the rest of this entry »