Water on Europa?

NASA, the US space agency, is inviting people to submit their names to a message that will be sent to Europa.

Does sending your name out there appeal to you?

Europa is almost 500 million kilometers from us.

Europa is hit with a lot of radiation from Jupiter,

It'll be a long time before you can travel to Jupiter, but you can send your name if you like. Well, more specifically, you can send your name to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. NASA, the US space agency, is inviting people to submit their names to a message that will be sent to Europa. They have a spacecraft, Europa Clipper, that's launching in 8 months on a mission to Europa. If you submit your name, they'll add it to the list of names that they engrave on silicon chips inside the spacecraft. There are millions of names being submitted, so the engravings are small. They're done with an electron beam, and each name is about one thousandth the width of a hair. I believe it's free though, so that's fun. 

Why are we sending a spacecraft to Europa? To look for signs that it could support life. Europa is an icy place. The temperature is below minus 100 degrees Celsius. But scientists believe that below the icy surface, there's a saltwater ocean that's up to 150 kilometers deep. They think that there's water there for a few reasons. Number one, they've observed that Europa disrupts Jupiter's magnetic field. A large amount of saltwater would do that. Also, in 2019, scientists detected water vapor about 100 kilometers above Europa. It's likely that the water came from Europa. 

If Europa does have water, that could mean it has life as well. Scientists believe that a planet, or moon, has good chances of supporting life if it has water, along with certain elements, like carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur. And it also needs a source of energy. Europa is hit with a lot of radiation from Jupiter, which could provide energy to the ocean beneath the surface. 

So the Europa Clipper will circle around Europa and look for signs of water, and for evidence that Europa could support life. It's one of the most anticipated space missions of this decade. But we'll be waiting a long time for the spacecraft's findings. It'll take about six years for Europa Clipper to arrive in Europa's orbit. Europa is almost 500 million kilometers from us. That's almost twice the distance of Mars, and 2,000 times the distance of our own moon. 

It's a long way for someone's name to travel. Does sending your name out there appeal to you? You can learn more about the project on NASA's website.

Listening Homework |
by Homework Cat

Listening Homework
by Homework Cat

Warmup

Which of these things is true about Europa?