Image Details

Choose export citation format:

Tidally Torn: Why the Most Common Stars May Lack Large, Habitable-zone Moons

  • Authors: Shaan D. Patel, Billy Quarles, Nevin N. Weinberg, Manfred Cuntz

Shaan D. Patel et al 2026 The Astronomical Journal 171 .

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 8.

Best-fit analysis for the lifetime of one HZ planet–moon system orbiting an M0 dwarf. Time evolution of the exomoon’s semimajor axis for a representative case within the M0 parameter space (0.52 au, 2.0 M), computed using rebound. Black points denote the rebound simulation results, while the blue dashed line indicates the moon’s stability limit. Red curves correspond to best-fit lines for both the stability threshold and the rebound evolution. Their intersection, marking the estimated instability time, is highlighted in magenta.

Other Images in This Article
Copyright and Terms & Conditions

Additional terms of reuse