Exomoon Detection Technique Could Greatly Expand Potential Habitable Systems 66
Luminary Crush (109477) writes Most of the detected exoplanets thus far have been gas giants which aren't great candidates for life as we know it. However, many of those planets are in fact in the star's habitable zone and could have moons with conditions more favorable. Until now, methods to detect the moons of such gas giants have been elusive, but researchers at the University of Texas, Arlington have discovered a way to detect the interaction of a moon's ionosphere with the parent gas giant from studies of Jupiter's moon Io. The search for 'Pandora' has begun.
We need telescopes (Score:5, Interesting)
We need telescopes, on and around earth. lots of them. Kepler has only scanned a small region of the sky.