Modeling Capture Probabilities Of Potentially Habitable Exomoons

The satellites of extrasolar planets (exomoons) have been theorized to be a viable location for extraterrestrial life. New methods are quickly developing to detect their presence by examining the transits of extrasolar gas giants. In addition, models have shown that the probability for a captured exomoon to stabilize into a near-circular orbit at a close distance to a planet is greater than 50 percent. In this study, we model the interaction, potentially resulting in a capture, between a gas giant and a binary moving toward it on a hyperbolic tra jectory. We find that, for certain conditions, capture of an exomoon is not just possible, it is overwhelmingly likely. We hope to use the results of this experiment to determine initial parameters for a subsequent simulation modeling a physical system of a gas giant and binary orbiting a star.