Name: Johana Guatemala

Date: November 29, 2014

Periodic-als Science in the News
Topic Selected:
Jupiters moon, Europa, has tectonic plates.
Why did you select this topic?
- I selected my topic because it captures my attention and makes me asks
questions like could life on Europa be possible? Can we live there?
Why is this topic currently in the news headline?
- This topic is currently in the news headline because it calls for the
possibility of alien life forms and Earth, humans, no longer being alone.

Fact Source 1
Source 1 Title: Student Science
MLA Citation: "Search Content." Student Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept.
2014. <https://student.societyforscience.org/article/moon%25E2%2580%2599s-
surface-slides-just-earth%25E2%2580%2599s?mode=topic&context=60>.

1. Jupiter's moon Europa is covered with icy slabs. This surface moves atop
tectonic plates, a new study finds.
2. Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, looks nothing like Earth. It has an icy
surface covered with cracks and ridges. But a new study finds that Europa
shares at least one feature with our home planet. Its surface slides around,
ferried by tectonic plates.
3. We've found another body in the solar system with plate tectonics. This
tells us that this process can happen on more than just rocky planets like
Earth
4. Many scientists believe Europa could be a good place to look for
extraterrestrial life because it has an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy
surface.
5. Everything weve discovered about Europa makes it more and more Earth-
like and exciting for the potential of life beyond our planet, she says.
This research shows we need to go back to Europa and we should to go
back soon.
6. Europa One of the moons of Jupiter and the sixth-closest satellite to the
planet. Europa, 1,951 miles across, has a network of dark lines on a bright,
icy surface
7. Jupiter (in astronomy) The solar systems largest planet, it has the shortest
day length (10 hours). A gas giant, its low density indicates that this planet
is composed of light elements, such as hydrogen and helium. This planet
also releases more heat than it receives from the sun, as gravity
compresses its mass (and slowly shrinks the planet).
8. While previous observations have seen surface reshaping, such as volcanic
activity, on other planetary bodies, such as Saturn's moon Titan (SN:
1/25/14, p. 14), Kattenhorn says Europa is the first found with a patchwork
of drifting tectonic plates.


9. Two years ago, Kattenhorn and Prockter spotted something odd on
Europa. They'd been studying maps of the moon taken in 1998 by Galileo,
a NASA spacecraft. They noticed that criss-crossing ridges on Europa
didn't line up. A swath of the moons surface looked as though a piece had
been torn out of it, with another piece laid on top.
10. One of those slabs is sliding beneath the other.
11. The sinking slab submerges into Europa's interior and combines with
warmer interior ice, the researchers suggest.
12. Kattenhorn and Prockter measured the intersection of the two segments. It
appears to be more than 1,700 kilometers (1,100 miles) long. In their
study, they suggest that similar segments may cover Europas entire
surface.
13. Their finding may help explain a puzzle about this moon. It formed more
than 4 billion years ago with the rest of the solar system. However, the
moon's surface is only 40 million to 90 million years old. Astronomers
have long wondered why it appears so young.
14. By the researcher's estimate, Europas entire surface may renew itself at
least once every 90 million years.
15. Europa is 3,122 km (0.246 Earths) across. It would take 125 Europas to
equal the weight of one Earth

Facts Source 2
Source 2 Title: Fox News
MLA Citation: "Jupiter's Moon Europa May Have Plate Tectonics Just like
Earth." Fox News. FOX News Network, 08 Sept. 2014. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/09/08/jupiter-moon-europa-may-have-
plate-tectonics-just-like-earth/>.

1. Big slabs of ice are sliding over and under each other within Europa's ice
shell, a new study suggests
2. Earth may not be alone. There may be another body out there that has
plate tectonics. And not only that, it's ice!
3. The new results come less than a year after plumes of water vapor were
spotted erupting from Europa's south polar region. That find excited
astrobiologists a great deal, because it suggested that a robotic probe may
be able to sample the moon's subsurface ocean of liquid water at a
distance, without even touching down.
4. 52,000-square-mile swath of Europa an area about the size of the state
of Alabama.
5. If the scientists' interpretation laid out in a study published online Sept.
7 in the journal Nature Geoscience is correct, planetary science
textbooks will have to be rewritten.
6. Selvans wrote. "Although Mercury, Venus and Marsshow clear signs of
tectonic activity, such as systems of thrust faults and rift valleys, none of
these rocky planets have been convincingly shown to have a system of
moving tectonic plates, either today or in the past."
7. Europa isn't getting any bigger, so some process must be balancing out the
production of new material.
8. Europa likely has a system of cold, brittle plates moving around above
convecting warmer ice.
9. The mechanisms behind Europan plate tectonics are unclear at the
moment, Kattenhorn said, stressing the need for modeling work.
10. Europa's ice shell is thought to be 12 to 19 miles thick, and subducting
plates likely dive down only a mile so, Kattenhorn said.
11. tidal heating generated by the tug of Jupiter's immense gravity, the same
phenomenon that keeps Europa's interior ocean from freezing up
12. Some scientists think plate tectonics were essential to the rise of life on
Earth. For example, the idea goes, the movement of plates replenishes
nutrients and helps stabilize the planet's climate by recycling carbon.
13. So it's natural to wonder if Europan plate tectonics may make the icy
moon more habitable for simple lifeforms, Selvans wrote.
14. Perhaps Europa and Earth are even more uniquely similar: It is tempting to
note the correlation between the existence of both life and plate tectonics
on Earth and wonder if the latter might not be a requirement of the former
15. Subduction probably doesn't take any nutrients or other complex
molecules from the surface down into the ocean immediately.