The moon crashing into Earth may sound like an unrealistic doomsday scenario or the stuff of sci-fi disasters. But for some planets in other star systems, such catastrophic collisions may be common.
New research published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societyuses computer simulations to show that collisions between exoplanets and their moons (called exomoons) may actually be a regular occurrence, which could be disastrous for any budding alien life on those planets.
While astronomers have yet to make a confident detection of an exomoon, scientists expect them to be plentiful in the universe.
"We know of lots of moons in our own solar system, so naturally we'd expect to see moons in exoplanet systems," Jonathan Brande, a University of Kansas astrophysicist who was not associated with the new study, told Live Science in an email. Therefore, theorists such as Brad Hansen, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of the new study, are interested in exploring how alien moons and exoplanets may interact, and how these interactions affect the potential for life in distant star systems.
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