Feasibility and consequences: the cosmic dance of twins habitable moons

I am aware of being a newbie in the field I am asking my question... please be kind and explain what I did wrong if I make a mistake.

The idea from where the problem bloom

I love worldbuilding. Whenever I have a spare moment, I try to invent unique features for my world and how I can make them believable. This time around, the idea came from an article that talked about moons of gas giants habitable by humans. Immediately, I told myself 'wow, that's awesome! I need my world to be one of those!', and got into the process of collecting information about how to make it believable.

Quickly, I found a lot of useful information (in particular questions on Stack Exchange, and some blogs found thanks to Google). Then I saw an article that made me think of another crazy idea :

• What if they were not one, but two habitable moons orbiting the same gas giant, like Janus & Epimetheus do -- swapping orbit regularly ?

For a crazy worldbuilder always in search of new unique features, this would be the straw on the cake. I would have two worlds for the price of one, and inhabitants filled with dreams at the sight of their twin world crossing their path and showing the lights of a more advanced civilization.

But...

I am not a clever man. I did a lot of research, but could not even find a start to begin my calculations to see if my idea was realistically feasible. I knew I probably had all the necessary information to make it, but I can't seem to approach the start of an answer. So in the last approach, I am asking for help to fool-check my concept.

What I am seeking

In short: Is my concept realistically possible? And what are the differences between Earth and one of the two habitable moons (related to the impact of the inhabitants everyday life -> aka. the difference in the weather, the look of the sky at night and daylight, can people see the giant storms of the gas giant, does the tides change as the twin cross the path of the other, are meteorites more likely...) ?

Longer version: I know there is a lot of parameters to take into account when creating a whole system like this one. The idea is only about finding one setup where it can work. Here is what I can comment on, and what I know is needed :

• Mass of the objects, distance to the sun/giants: This is a significant factor, but for this situation, it doesn't matter what values are taken as long as it sticks together.

• Atmosphere: I'm unsure about this one. While I do know that moons can have their own atmosphere, I've also heard that the atmosphere of the giant can encompass the satellites.

• How the moons formed: I've found somewhere that habitable moons were more likely when they formed in the habitable zone of the system, and were captured afterward by the gas giant when she would 'migrate' toward the habitable zone. For this question, I will simplify by saying that it doesn't matter. Let's just imagine that everything magically appeared in the best setup possible.

• Tidal locking: This is a regular, and inevitable occurrence of moons. If I am correct, the question would be whether the planet can be habitable when it is already tidally locked, and the consequences of this. Like: where are the north and south poles equivalent, do inhabitants of one side never see the gas giant whereas inhabitants of the other side see it every day?

It's everything that came to my mind as of now. If I remember anything else, I'll edit the question to add it. Feel free to guide me to resources I can use if you know some, an incomplete answer is better than no answer at all.

Thank you in advance !

Sasugasm

posted almost 6 years ago

Sasugasm‭

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