Moons orbiting rogue planets could maintain liquid water oceans for up to 4.3 billion years through tidal heating and hydrogen-rich atmospheres. Researchers from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics reached this conclusion in a new study.
Rogue planets, also known as free-floating planets, are worlds ejected from their original solar systems. They travel through interstellar space without orbiting a star. Previous research indicated that some of these planets can retain moons despite the chaotic ejection process. Those moons often end up in elongated orbits that generate internal heat through gravitational stretching and squeezing, known as tidal heating.