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Voyage to Europa!

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Voyage to Europa! Voyage to Europa! 1. Introduction: Is there life on one of Jupiter's moons? The Setting The Challenge Heads Up! 2. Activities: Getting the Images Imaging Jupiter and it's Moons Scope it Out Reflecting on your Images Which moon is Europa? Using the Images to Investigate Jupiter and Europa Preparing for the Trip: How far is Jupiter? Go Figure A Base Camp on Jupiter? What is the scale of my image? How large is Jupiter? How large is Europa? How much does Jupiter weigh? How dense is Jupiter? How strong is Jupiter's gravity? Mission assessment: Jupiter as a base camp? Search for Life on Europa What is Europa Like? Does Europa have an Atmosphere? What is Europa's Environment? Can We Communice to Earth from Europa? Artificial Gravity? Try this/Tabletop Experiment: Mysterious motion experiment An Ocean on Europa? Try this/Tabletop Experiment: Cooool Heat! Did you know/fun fact: whales Is there Life at the extremes? 3. Wrap-Up & Reference: Data Page Briefing Room Timeline Ideas you'll need From the Ground Up!: Jupiter v. 031301 -1- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics VOYAGE TO EUROPA 1. INTRODUCTION: Is there life on one of Jupiter's moons? Circling the giant planet, Jupiter, are several moons that may contain liquid water. One of those moons Ñ named Europa Ñ may even be covered by a vast ocean. In fact, according to recent evidence from a NASA space probe to Jupiter, this salt-water ocean may be 60 miles deep and as warm as the waters of Bermuda! If true, this would make Europa the likeliest place in our solar system to search for extra- terrestrial life. The problem: Europa's ocean is hidden under a thick layer of ice. THE CHALLENGE: You and your firm, Investigation Inc., have been asked by NASA to report on the prospects for sending an expedition to search for life beneath Europa's frozen surface. NASA will provide the spacecraft to get your crew to Jupiter, and will develop any technologies you may need. Your challenge is to: • Obtain images of the planet Jupiter and its four brightest moons, and identify your destination, Europa. • Evaluate the prospects for setting up a base camp on Jupiter. Use your images Ñ and your knowledge of physics Ñ to find out as much as you can about Jupiter. If you tried to land on Jupiter, would you hit a solid surface, or would you keep on falling and never be heard from again? If you could land on Jupiter, how much would you weigh? Would your body be able to support you? Would you be able to take off again? From the Ground Up!: Jupiter v. 031301 -2- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics • Evaluate the prospects for a base camp on Europa: Do you expect Europa to have an atmosphere? How much sunlight does Europa get compared to Earth? If you can only explore the surface while the sun is up, how long can you explore before you must get back to base camp? How cold do you expect it to be? How much will you weigh there, compared to Earth? • Evaluate the prospects for life under Europa's icy surface: The ocean on Europa could contain bizarre life forms Ñ or it could contain no life at all. Make a case for the likelihood of finding life on Europa. Consider these questions: Does life need an energy source Ñ and if so, what kinds of energy will do? Does life need light to exist? Does life need oxygen? In discussing these questions, you may wish to research and report on one or more of the following: -What kind of life lives near deep-sea volcanic vents on Earth? -What are the most extreme conditions on Earth, and what kinds of living things thrive under those conditions? This mission guide will take you step by step through the activities you'll need for your report. HEADS UP! Next time you find yourself under the stars, look for the planet Jupiter. When it's above the horizon, Jupiter is easy to spot, even in the city, because it often appears brighter than even the brightest stars. If the other planets or the Moon are also visible, you'll see that they all lie along a nearly straight path across the sky. If extended below the horizon, this line would also pass through the Sun. That's because the Sun, planets and their moons lie in nearly the same plane. When seen from a point within that plane, they appear to lie along a line. Try this dizzying feat: Look up at the sky and picture the plane that the planets lie in. You'll suddenly become aware that you're standing at an angle to that plane. When it comes to outer space, which direction is "up"?! From the Ground Up!: Jupiter v. 031301 -3- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 2. ACTIVITIES Getting the Images IMAGING JUPITER AND ITS MOONS Your first challenge is to use the telescope to get good images of your destination: Jupiter and its moons. In this challenge, you'll investigate the motion of the moons by taking images about once an hour for four or five hours. Amazingly, there will be enough information in these images for you to determine several properties of Jupiter that you'll need to know for your mission Ñ such as Jupiter's size, density, and gravity. This information will help you in deciding whether to establish a base camp on Jupiter. 'SCOPE IT OUT Selecting the Target: Use the pull-down menu to select Jupiter. (The telescope's computer will automatically determine Jupiter's location in the sky for the time you selected. Jupiter does not have a permanent address Ñor RA and DEC Ñ in the sky, because it moves from night to night relative to the background stars. In fact, the word "planet" means "wanderer.") Camera: Use the MAIN camera, ZOOMED IN. (If some of the moons are out of the field of view, you can use ZOOMED OUT instead.) Filter: Try using the grey filter ("ND-40") to cut down on Jupiter's glare. Exposure time: Use a 10 second exposure if you are using the grey filter. Downloading Your Image: You should be able to see Jupiter and its moons clearly in the GIF-format image on the Web, without any image processing. Be sure to download both the image AND its Image Info file, because this contains the information about how and when you took the image. It's a good idea to also download the FITS file for each image as well for your records. (Click and HOLD on the underlined link, then select "Save As...SOURCE" and download. Printing the Image: The simplest way to compare your images is to print them. TIP: Use an image processing program to INVERT your image Ñ that is, to reverse black and white. Then when you print, Jupiter and its moons will appear black against a white background. That's much easier to measure, and you'll be saving your printer's ink as well! Making Measurements: You can make measurements directly from your computer monitor, or from printed images. For an image printed at 100% scale, 1 inch = 72 pixels. From the Ground Up!: Jupiter v. 031301 -4- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics REFLECTING ON YOUR IMAGES: Size of Jupiter. Why does Jupiter appear so small, compared to the Moon? Point of view. Why do we see the moons arranged on a more or less straight line? Forces and motion. What keeps the moons in orbit around Jupiter? Why don't they fly off into space? Speed of the moons. Which moons appear to have moved, from image to image? Why have some moons moved more than others? Getting the big picture. Jupiter and its moons look like a miniature "solar system." How does the plane of the moons compare to the plane of the solar system? Why might that be? From the Ground Up!: Jupiter v. 031301 -5- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics WHICH MOON IN YOUR IMAGE IS EUROPA? You'll probably see up to four of Jupiter's moons in your image. Can you figure out which moon is Europa? The moon closest to Jupiter in nature is called Io, followed by Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. But the moon that looks closest to Jupiter in your image need not be Io. That's because, from Earth, we're looking at the moons edge-on to the plane of their orbit. For example, the image at right shows how the moons might look if you were to look DOWN on the plane of their orbit. (The image shows the relative size of the orbits, to scale.) The edge-on view below it shows how this scene would appear through the telescope. Can you label which moon is which? When you look at your images, you won't have the benefit of a top-down view to compare them to. But can you think of a way to figure out which moon is which by following the moons through several images? If you could follow the moons for long enough, you could see the furthest distance that each one gets from Jupiter. That would tell which moon is which. A second way to tell the moons apart is to see which moon moves FASTEST -- i.e., moves the furthest in several successive images taken, say, an hour apart. The moons closest to Jupiter orbit the fastest, as predicted by Newton's laws of motion.
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