GAME of MOONS a TALE of ICE and FIRE 3 × 50 Min

Home , Triton (moon)

GAME OF MOONS A TALE OF ICE AND FIRE 3 × 50 min. Written and produced by Ivo Filatsch Executive Producer: Sabine Holzer 4K, 5.1 and Stereo Join us on a spectacular rollercoaster ride through our solar system! This three-part series explores alien worlds of extremes right in our celestial neighbourhood, each single one amazing, fascinating, and unique in its own way. case for Triton. It circles— in aaround retrograde Neptune orbit. in the — our Moon … opposite direction veryone knows the moon But this brings a problem: the laws of physics It may come as a surprise, but there are dictate that in this situation, Triton is being more than 200 of these natural satellites slowed down all the while, this way getting ever orbiting other planets in the solar system! closer to Neptune. EAll these moons are incredibly different regarding Scientists have calculated that in about 100 their size, but also in terms of their environments. million years from now, Triton will reach its Roche Studying these alien worlds in detail is important. radius. This is the zone where the gravitational Thanks to the insights scientists are getting forces of Neptune will become too strong to and Triton will be ripped apart into through observations, measurements, and withstand — conclusions, we all get a better understanding of pieces … our world as a whole. - CHAPTER 2: LIFE And the better we understand our neighbour Our moon is much more than just a nice decora- hood, the better we get to know our home planet tion in the night sky. In fact, without the moon, … the chances for life to evolve and survive on Earth would have been much lower. CHAPTER 1: BIRTH The wild ebb and flow of the early ocean tides This episode reveals how moons came into were crucial driving forces of evolution. Still today, — existence in the first place. the tides of the Earth’s oceans have a profound effect on countless lifeforms on our planet Our own Moon is the result of a cataclysmic including ourselves. cosmic collision that happened more than four billion years ago. In these early days of the Even more important, the gravitational pull of formation of the solar system, a proto planet, Earth’s quite large companion stabilised our approximately the size of Mars, crashed into the planet‘s rotational axis and its angle. This way, young Earth. the Moon ensured the continuity of the annual The debris that was hurled into space consolidat- seasons, of climate and weather patterns over ed in an orbit around our planet, and eventually— long periods of time,— aright premise up to for us thehumans. evolution formed the body that we can see today of higher lifeforms the Moon. Yet, there are even more links between life and Most moons, however, have been formed out of moons in the solar system. the same primordial material that was also the basic building material for the planets themselves. Jupiter has four large companions, two of which Over aeons, the dust and grains from the very are particularly interesting when it comes to the early phase of our solar system condensed into question of possible extraterrestrial life. Meet ever bigger objects, the largest being the planets. Jupiter‘s deep-frozen ice moons Ganymede and Europa! On both, scientists expect oceans of salty The leftover material in the orbits around water — yet, under an ice sheet, many kilometers the planets concentrated ever further as well. thick. Eventually, this led to the formation of solid But how can liquid water exist on these icy worlds, bodies with a surprising variety of shapes and with average temperatures far below minus sizes, colours and compositions. 100 degrees Celsius? Again, the reason is gravity: in their orbits, the — Yet another way for lonely planets to find a moons are constantly being kneaded by the companion in the vast emptiness of space seems — just hijack one … never-ending pull of the gravitational forces quite simple mostly from giant Jupiter, but also from the One such example is Triton, the largest moon of planet’s other large moons. This tidal energy is — which keeps the water liquid. the planet Neptune. Scientists suspect that Triton’s turned into heat origin is the Kuiper belt, a vast, icy region at the fringes of the solar system. At the moment, these exotic bodies of water are the most promising places in our solar system to Pulled by Neptune’s gravity, Triton ended up in harbour extraterrestrial lifeforms, according to — at least in the form of microbes. the planet’s orbit. But while most moons orbit astrobiologists their parent bodies in the same direction the planets themselves are rotating, this is not the SCIENCE

— but it’s Saturn, the second-largest planet in our Right now, the European Space Agency solar system has the most moons ESA is preparing an orbiter, designed to most famous for its very prominent rings. study Europa and Ganymede in close detail. The ring particles are made of ice and rock; If everything goes to plan, JUICE will be they range in size from specks of dust up launched in 2022. to 10 meters in diameter. Meanwhile, NASA is working on Europa There are different theories about the Clipper, a probe that will investigate origin of Saturn’s ring system. The cause the habitability of Europa. The launch is could be a moon that came too close and planned for 2025. This orbiter shall also therefore was ripped apart by gravity. help selecting a suitable landing site for a The second hypothesis is that the rings con- potential future Europa Lander mission. sist of leftovers from the original nebular material, out of which Saturn itself was CHAPTER 3: DEATH formed. However, this spectacular feature Io is yet another of Jupiter’s Galilean won’t last forever. Material from the rings moons, and the innermost of its four large is raining down on Saturn. Scientists have satellites. calculated that in 100 million years from Therefore, we don’t see a deep-frozen ice now, this ‘Lord of the Rings’ will have lost world, but a hellish and hostile inferno. Io his characteristic decoration forever. is the most geologically active object in the solar system. No life can exist here, at least The ingredients for this otherworldy A Terra Mater Factual Studios production no life as we know it. Huge and violent eruptions of giant volca- experience are cutting-edge CGI sequences; noes are occurring frequently, and streams original footage, graphics, and stills from of lava are flowing across Io’s surface, ever NASA and ESA space missions; state-of- changing its landscapes and terrain. The the-art filming of models and mock-ups, cause of all this activity are the massive laboratory settings and experiments; tidal forces of Jupiter on one side of Io, statements of top experts in the fields of and Jupiter‘s three other large moons on planetary science, geology, astrobiology, the opposite side. and possibly a presenter who is our guide Stuck in between, Io is constantly being on this tour de force through space and and beyond your wildest expecta- © NASA kneaded. This ‘massage’ on a cosmic scale time — is driving the intense tectonic and volcanic tions … processes on the moon, turning Io into a real hell.

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