Andrew Yee's Oct. 9th post on the Eddington Probe (could detect moons
of extrasolar planets) got me wondering...

What would be the chances of a rich earthlike biosphere evolving on an
earth-mass moon of an extrasolar jovian planet in orbit -within- the so-
called "habitable zone" of its star? This is obviously a difficult question
involving huge numbers of factors, but the first factor occurring to me as
I read that post was...what would the climate or seasons be like, since
that 'earth'-moon would have not only seasonal variations through the
year (depending on orbital eccentricity etc., axial tilt etc.), but some
variations due to its monthly changes in distance from its home star
due to its lunar orbit about the jovian.

Hmm..now that I think about it, such changes might not add up to much
since they would generally only be a tiny fraction of the planet's average
distance from its star.

Gene