Margot Richards
Icy-Moon Discoveries: What They Mean for Alien Life Search
Choi, Charles Q. "Icy-Moon Discoveries: What They Mean for Alien Life Search | Space.com." Space.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
Recently, Scientists have made impressive discoveries about the moons in the outer solar system. These discoveries about the satellites, Enceladus and Ganymede, could offer potential news about life outside of Earth. It was discovered that Enceladus could possibly possess hot springs. These hot springs could be evidence of active hydrothermal vents and would show that Enceladus contains conditions similar to those in the Lost City in the Atlantic Ocean on Earth. This area on Earth is home to many different forms of sea life, which leads many to believe that Enceladus could also contain life forms. Sadly researchers have found that life on Enceladus is still unlikely. This is because there is much less pressure at the base of the Enceladus’s ocean compared to Earth’s ocean. Without this pressure, chemical reactions would not take place and life would not form. Ganymede on the other hand has much too high a pressure at the base of its ocean. This forms a high pressure ice layer, which makes life highly unlikely. The most likely source of life in our solar system outside of Earth is Europa, a moon of Jupiter. It is unknown yet what is under the surface of Europa’s icy outer layer, but researchers believe it could contain both an ocean and hot springs. Until future missions, researchers have no way to tell.
Although finding life on a distance object could seem useless, it could have a large effect on our future. Finding life on our planets would allow us to learn large amounts of information about life and the way in which it forms. We might also be able to learn about, depending on the life forms found, the way life used to be on Earth or the way it will be. Some objects with live could be hospitable to humans and one day could be home to humans. If this is the case, this object or planet could potentially save human existence. Once the sun has heated up or we have used all of our resources, we will need a new place to live. If we find an object with life forms, this could be our future home.
Overall, I thought this article was well written, but it could have been improved. One thing the author did really well was talk about both reasons why the object could contain life and why the object could not contain life. This made the article appear less bias and more legit. One thing the article could have done is talk about all the ways the planet could or could not contain life. The article focused mostly on the aspect of water and its effect on life. I thought that the article should have also talked about the other necessities for life. I also thought that the article should have expanded more on the idea of life on Europa because it only talked briefly about it and could have included more details. In conclusion, I thought that the article was overall well written and could have improved in some areas.
I liked this synopsis of your article. I also agree that if Europa is the most probable planet with a possibility of life, if should be expanded upon. I feel like this will take a long time to figure out, but, we've made a lot of advancements in a short period of time already, no telling what we can do in the not-to-distant future.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you talked about places other than Earth that could possibly contain life and noted that it was highly unlikely that it would. Even though there are not many other places, I like how you mentioned Europa, which gave us a sense of mystery behind it. Also, I enjoyed reading your last paragraph because it related back to humans on Earth and how their future would be different if scientists found life somewhere else. Overall, I liked the way you presented your topic and found it very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction to this really grabs the readers attention, this hooked me in for the ride. I found the information really entertaining and having such an interest in the paper kept me reading and wanting more. The format is good, i like the introduction and this paper is concluded nicely. One problem i had was the spacing seems different at the conclusion. Besides that the paper was good.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction to this really grabs the readers attention, this hooked me in for the ride. I found the information really entertaining and having such an interest in the paper kept me reading and wanting more. The format is good, i like the introduction and this paper is concluded nicely. One problem i had was the spacing seems different at the conclusion. Besides that the paper was good.
ReplyDeleteI thought that you did a particularly good job in explaining the importance of finding life in other parts of the solar system and how one day humans will have to move to survive. I also thought that the reasons for why or why not it could have life and your critique of the article itself. I liked how you broke down the article into three different parts. My only problem was how the conclusion seemed spaced differently. Other than that this was a well done deconstruction of a scientific article
ReplyDeleteMargot picked a very interesting, and informative topic that I think everyone is curious to know about. Margot did a great job of showing us why scientists think there could be life outside of Earth on other planets, and why they don’t think it is possible. By her showing us both points of view, as to why its possible or not possible, is a great way of getting us to understand scientists’ think behind the whole topic. Another thing that Margot managed to do very well was that she compared and contrasted Enceladus and Ganymede. By her comparing the two we can see which one has the greater opportunity of life. Comparing the two also shows us how difficult it is to have the perfect conditions, fortunately like we do here on Earth, for life. So comparing the two also helps us get a better understanding of why life could or could not exist on other planets other than Earth. Margot made several great points throughout her review, but most importantly she talked about what impact it could have on us here on Earth. Even though science is dramatically improving, we unfortunately can’t see into the future, and so Margot writing about what could happen in the future, gives us an idea of how our planet could change drastically.
ReplyDeleteMargots review was full of information that I had not previously known prior to reading this article. One of many things that I learnt while reading the article was that, compared to Earth, Enceladus’s ocean has less pressure than Earth does. And this would be among one of the reasons as to why life is not possible there. By reading Margot’s review, I had also learnt that the closest planet to possibly having life is one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa. And that the only reason why life could not be possible is because they do not know what is under the surface of Europa’s ice layer, and we won’t know until later missions.
Margot wrote a great review, and provided us with a lot of information. But looking at her article as a whole, I would have liked to have heard more about as to why Europa is the one planet beside Earth that could have life. She lets us know as to why it could not be possible, but I am interested to know why it is possible, and wish she had told us more about that.