Exomoons: Natural, and Unnatural, Astronomical Bodies Orbiting Strange Planets

by Sergio Palumbo, David O'Mahony (Editor), Shane Porteous

Many are the mysteries that have surrounded the Moon since the most ancient times, but there are–probably…–just billions of exomoons out there, past the boundary of our small Solar System. Exomoons are difficult to detect, given our present technology, and to date there have been no confirmed exomoon detections. However, observations from missions such as Kepler have observed something that might be reputed to be an exomoon. So, we all know about exoplanets that were discovered, more and more, year by year, thanks to the defunct Kepler space telescope, and today thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, to mention just two. But what about exomoons? Those still-unknown satellites orbiting exoplanets or other non-stellar extrasolar bodies are really difficult to find using current techniques. But what about them in the future? Were they born from the same matter the exoplanet they are orbiting is made of, like Earth’s Moon, or were they built (like the Death Star in Star Wars™) by some lifeforms or brought there by some alien species? And could those unknown exomoons support life, maybe even intelligent life? More than that, as Earth’s Moon proved to be important in shaping life as we know it, because without it to stabilize our planet, its wobble would become erratic and extreme, what about exomoons and the many aliens they might have helped in developing and creating their strange civilizations elsewhere?

Think of alien exomoons where once life was present and whose archaeological remains today have become the valuable prey of plunderers from space. So, in this book you’ll read a story about an exomoon that is bigger than planet Mars’s size, on which lifeforms are present, though orbiting a gas giant that doesn’t give them light, and warmth, the same as our Sun does. You’ll also read stories about exomoons that aren’t moons at all… And there is also a story about what happened to exomoons partly damaged by something that apparently almost turned them into pieces of shapeless rocks in outer space. Then, here you’ll also find a story about strange exomoons approaching our Sun. And an unusual moon out there in space where some Cthulian deities are at work, maybe… Be that as it may, for starters there’s a story that is about a werewolf and some different, very different exomoons!

Are those exomoons full of surprises, or just as dead as our Moon is? Have some alien species visited them, or do they plan on doing it in the next future maybe?

-Sergio ‘ente per ente’ Palumbo

397 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 23, 2024

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