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Aliens more likely to live on moons than planets
- hugh_ 17y agoHeadline inaccurate. What Kaltenegger is actually saying is that of the planets we're likely to be able to detect in the near future, life is more likely on moons of gas giants than planets. This is because the detection technology is still at a stage where the only Earth-sized planets we're likely to see will probably all be so close-in as to be tidally locked to their stars, which is most probably going to be bad from life's point of view. As for whether life is more common throughout the universe on moons than planets, we really have no idea at this stage. I do like the way that every science story from Britain appears to include the word "boffin" at least twice.
- rbanffy 17y agoThere probably are more inhabitable moons than planets simply because there are more moons than planets.