A new study suggests that exomoons are common in multistar systems. Thus far, only a few exomoon candidates have been identified. Exoplanets with moons may be likelier to host life than those without moons. Though Earth has only one (very special and precious) moon, the average planet in our solar system has 26 moons . (The range is from zero moons for Mercury and Venus to 82 moons for Saturn.) If the Milky Way has about 100 billion exoplanets, as astrophysicists suppose, then we can expect many more exomoons. Finding these exomoons is the subject of a new paper recently published in the Astronomical Journal . By using the same techniques to find exoplanets, the researchers hope to show that exomoons are also common — and potentially a harbinger of life. Hunting for exomoons How do we know
