Homework #6

Ch9Q38: Lesson for Life: Considering everything we’ve learned about the possible habitability of Jovian moons, make a list of what you think are the three most important lessons that apply to the search for life in other solar systems. Describe the importance of each lesson clearly, and conclude by summarizing how the study of Jovian moons as changed our perspective about life in the Universe.

     1.) Tidal Force can heat far away moons - When we search for life we initially look to planets that have an atmosphere and are in the "goldilocks zone" so that water can be liquid; however, the tidal forces evident in the relation Jovian Planets and there moons can mimic the same conditions for the temperate zone. Meaning we can find life in more places than previously expected.

     2.) Water is not the only liquid medium - Water is the liquid medium of our planet and therefore when in search for life we look for water as the liquid medium; however, methane and ethane, with there lower freezing temperatures, are liquid at much colder temperatures compared to space. This does mean chemical reactions are slower and the life would not be life as we know it, but it does mean that there are more places to search for life

     3.) Moons are very diverse - When we think of moons we look to our own moon as an example, a dead chunk of rock that could never support life as we know it, but moons can be very diverse as shown by Europa's and Ganymede's oceans.

Ch10Q48: Habitable Moons: As we’ll discuss in Chapter 11, some of the newly discovered exoplanets are Jupiter-like in size but are located at Earth-like distances from Sun-like stars. These planets are unlikely to be habitable themselves. Could they have moons with habitable surfaces? Explain.

     Yes, if they have an atmosphere and the combination of their current location and the tidal force is roughly equal to a planet lying in the temperate zone it would be habitable.

Ch11Q44: Explaining the Doppler Method: Explain how the Doppler method works in terms an elementary school child would understand. It may help to use an analogy to explain the difficulty of direct detection and the general phenomenon of the Doppler shift.

The Doppler Method is used by seeing how much a star wobbles back and forth. If it wobbles so much we can assume that a planet is tugging on it through gravity. Imagine a father swing a child around. The father moves back and forth as his son is pulling on him while in the air, even though the father is much bigger than the son.