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What Are the Chances for Life in the Jupiter System?

What Are the Chances for Life in the Jupiter System?. By Alex H. Elias A. Nina M. Avery S. Jupiter & Its Moons. Jupiter is the fifth planet in the solar system. Jupiter is also the closes Jovian planet to the sun. Jupiter is a gas planet so thus life would not exist on the planet.

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What Are the Chances for Life in the Jupiter System?

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  1. What Are the Chances for Life in the Jupiter System? By Alex H. Elias A. Nina M. Avery S.

  2. Jupiter & Its Moons • Jupiter is the fifth planet in the solar system. • Jupiter is also the closes Jovian planet to the sun. • Jupiter is a gas planet so thus life would not exist on the planet. • Thankfully, it has moons! Hooray!

  3. What are Jupiter’s Moons? • With 63 total moons, Jupiter has many natural satellites. • These moons are of many different sizes, but most are under 3 km. wide. • There are four large and very prominent moons. • These moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. They were all discovered by Galileo in 1610.

  4. The Moon Io • Io is a very hot place at 1800 Kelvin. It has a lot of volcanic activity, the most in the solar system. • With volcanic eruptions daily (400 active volcanoes), along with massive lava flows. • Io orbits very close to the outer atmosphere of Jupiter. • Io also has a high concentration of sulfur in its atmosphere.

  5. The Moon Io

  6. The Moon Europa • Europa is covered with ice but, underneath is a sea! • Europa orbits in an oval around Jupiter, this means that there are tides beneath the ice caused by Europa’s unique elliptical orbit. • It is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and it always has the same side facing Jupiter. • It’s atmosphere is filled with oxygen! • It has a surface temperature of -260 degrees Faherenheit

  7. The Moon Europa

  8. The Moon Ganymede • Ganymede is the largest satellite in the entire solar system!!! • The moon is approximately half silicate rock, and water ice. • A salt water ocean is believed to exist 200 km. below the surface. • Ganymede is the only satellite in the solar system believed to have a magnetic field because of its supposed hot iron core (oh wow)!

  9. The Moon Ganymede

  10. The Moon Callisto • Callisto is the third largest moon in the solar system! Can you believe it?!? I sure can. • Similar to Ganymede, Callisto is supposed to be composed of half ice, and half rock. • The surface is heavily cratered and very old. • This moon, unlike others is not rumored to have any undersurface activity. • This moon is a big cold rock. Period.

  11. The Moon Callisto

  12. What do you need for life? • A planet must possess relatively clean liquid water, there has to be organic molecules that can transform into life, and energy sources to maintain metabolism. • The planet must be at the ideal distance from its sun, in order to sustain a temperature that is suitable for life. • The sun must be consistently giving off heat and light so that life can form under similar circumstances and evolve over time

  13. Io, Could there be life? • We know that there is a lot of volcanic activity on Io which is how the Earth was in the beginning. • Based on that, there could be certain elements that will be in the lava that will come into the atmosphere and could make life sustainable. • Since Io looks like a primitive Earth the possibilities for life are just now forming.

  14. Europa, Could there be life? • Yes! Europa could potentially sustain life. • Not only is it covered in ice (water), but there is a hidden sea underneath all those layers. • The planet is cold, but it’s heat source is Jupter; pulling the tides of its sea. • Oxygen is a necessity, and Europa’s got it! • There has been discovery of bacteria in Earth’s harshest conditions, that are much like Europa’s.

  15. Ganymede, Could there be life? • Possibly… but not likely. • Ganymede’s source of water is extremely salty. No life form we know of can survive solely upon this. But you never know. • Although the temperatures are very low, and atmosphere is little to none; Ganymede has a strong magnetic field. This could protect life from damaging radiation.

  16. Callisto, Could there be life? • Not likely.. • This moon is one hundred percent desolate. Unlike Europa and Ganymede who prove that there is more than meets the eye, Callisto proves otherwise.. • It is a big cold rock. • But not all hope is lost! Ice covers much of the moon. Ice = water. • The atmosphere is also decently sustainable.

  17. Conclusion • With these moons the orbit Jupiter, it really opens the possibility for other life in our solar system. • The circumstances these moons are under currently hold the most likely conditions for life. • If the conditions evolve or just shift slightly, the probability for life would be almost 100%!!!!

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