CEN 511: Recent Discoveries in Astronomy

1. What important relation exists among the orbital periods of Jupiter's Galilean satellites (i.e., its four largest satellites)?
2. What phenomena could contribute to heating of Europa or otherwise assist in promoting chemical reactions in its supposedly liquid mantle? You should do a web search to investigate what is thought about this subject.
3. What evidence exists that liquid water exists under the icy surface of Europa?
4. What moon has an extensive atmosphere, and what is its surface pressure compared to the Earth's?
5. What space probes are scheduled to investigate the moons of Jupiter and Saturn? When are they expected to explore their targets?
6. What are the major techniques currently available to search for planets which exist around stars other than the Sun?
7. Make a histogram of the masses of the extrasolar planets discovered so far. That is, make a bar chart showing the number of planets with masses in the bins limited by, say, (1) 0.01 and 0.03 M_Jupiter, (2) 0.03 and 0.1 M_Jupiter, (3) 0.1 and 0.3 M_Jupiter, (4) 0.3 and 1.0 M_Jupiter, (5) 1.0 and 3.0 M_Jupiter and (6) 3.0 and 10.0 M_Jupiter. Does this distribution mean anything to you?