What'sNEW
Moons in eccentric orbits around rogue planets may retain liquid oceans for billions of years, sustained by tidal heating alone. A pair of astronomers at the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest reach this conclusion after a deep mathematical analysis of the orbital dynamics of planets and moons. A lunar orbit could remain stable even if the planet is flung free of its star. This is especially interesting, because rogue planets are far more common than we used to think.
 Life in the dark:
Potential urability of the moons of rogue planets, by Viktória Fröhlich and Zsolt Regály, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202556673, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 06 Jan 2026.
The two astronomers think that life could originate on tidally-heated moons. I notice, instead, that life could persist on them. This reminds me of "wet panspermia," the potential transfer of whole biospheres on asteroids, comets and larger bodies with long-lasting heat sources. Why not?!
 29 Jan 2023: Wet Panspermia, as suggested by Hoyle & Wickramasinghe, Hoover and Hand.
Life on Europa, Other Moons, Other Planets? has links about possibly habitable worlds.
Carl Sagan wth a model of a Viking lander
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...data from the Viking Mars mission were misinterpreted in 1976 as showing ...no life, even though the three life detection experiments ...all reported life-positive data under the terms of their experimental design. This mistake has been propagated for a half century.... Biochemist Steve Benner and colleagues think serious re-examination is long overdue.
Viking Mars, Now 50 Years Old, Still Needs a Scientific Analysis, by Steven A. Benner, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Jan Spacek and Clay Abraham, Astrobiology, online 24 Dec 2025.
Life on Mars! has background and updates
about Viking.
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