ESL Lesson Plan: Tides of Europa (Part 1)(繁體)

Photo by Sarah Lee on Unsplash / 照片出處；李莎拉 on Unsplash

Reading Activity (20 minutes)

Tides of Europa (Beginning Third)

23 Spatio Annus (SA)

The glass was cold. Despite the comfortable climate of the colony, Raina could feel the chill of Europa’s oceans. It reminded her of the cold when she crossed from Mars.

Frozen on the surface, Europa’s oceans were covered with 15 to 25 kilometers of ice. Their colony had drilled through 17 kilometers as the colony grew until they eventually reached the ocean.

That had been five years ago. Just after she and her team had arrived from the long journey from Mars. The resources that were discovered within the ocean and ice of Europa, those uncovered by the Ganymede colonies and the potential of mining Iroh gave Jupiter’s lunar colonies the potential to build and grow on their own without the entirety of their resources coming in from Mars and Earth.

“Doctor!” Raina turned to see her assistant. “We are launching the drones, you are invited to observe… We would like you to observe.”

She smiled. “Of course.”

They had been sending drones deeper and deeper into the oceans. They had estimated that the oceans were 60 to 150 kilometers deep before landing on the moon. 150 kilometers was now known to be shallow.

“We are going back to the trench.” The brief for the mission began when the lead, Dr. Adams, saw her enter the room. “The drones have been prepared to endure pressure up until depths of 500 kilometers.”

“That won’t be deep enough to reach the bottom of the trench,” She added.

“It will be close enough to see the bottom!”

Volcanic activity was prevalent in the depths of the trench. Though, they had detected something, rhythmic, perfectly rhythmic. That was why the drones had been modified. That’s why they were going beyond studying the tiny life forms they had recently discovered thriving in this same trench.

The displays in the room showed the point of view of the three drones. They reached the mouth of the trench at about 200 kilometers deep. The lights on the drones painted the sheer ledges of the trench. Small patches of white on the rock were common near thermal vents. It was a bacteria.

She spotted the green of the thermal algae that also dwelled here. Their drones would come back covered in it. They were 300 kilometers deep now.

The drones started to hear it. It was soft at first, regular, with a long pause between each reading.

“Our moon is alive,” one of the drone pilots said with a chuckle.

The drones reached 400 kilometers deep. The audio from the drones was now clearly sending back the rhythmic beating of whatever they were hearing. Raina looked at the temperature readings from the drones. It was 50 degrees Celsius and climbing. The density of life on the trench walls was growing. Even under tremendous pressure from the moon’s ocean and the extreme climate of the trench, life was still here.

Other trenches had been discovered across the moon by the other colonies. Other trenches had

life, but none of them were like the trench below Europa 7. They were at 500 kilometers. The drones paused their descent.

“Switching to depth-lense,” a drone pilot said.

The view from the cameras displaying the world around the drones shifted. They cut their lights and looked directly at the bottom of the abyss.

The three screens were totally dark as they slowly sought whatever tiny parcel of light they could find down there. Slowly, an image formed. At first, the detail was poor, every pulse disturbed the cameras, but steadily, the images became clear as their AI slowly pieced together what was being captured into a coherent image.

“Doctor?”

Raina looked at her assistant. “Yes?”

“What is that?”

Its texture was smooth with an occasional ridge. Significant heat was coming off it. There was another pulse. The bottom of the trench expanded and then contracted.

“Our moon is alive,” the same pilot said again.

“Dr. Pavlov.” Raina looked up at Dr. Adams. “That does look alive.”

“Take samples from 500 kilometers, then let’s get the drones back here,” she said. “How long will it take to get the drones ready to get deeper?”

Dr. Adams shrugged. “Everything we do here is the first time it has ever been done. However, I will make sure it gets done immediately.”

閱讀時間 (20 minutes)

木衛二的潮汐（上篇1/3)

23 空間年

窗面的玻璃很冰。儘管殖民地上的氣候很舒適，但是Raina依然能感受到木衛二海洋的冷冽刺骨。這讓她回想起從火星穿越至木衛二時的寒冷。

冰封的表面。木衛二的海洋被15到25公里的冰層覆蓋著。殖民地居民先是鑽探了17公里深，隨著殖民地的發展，最終鑿穿了冰層，抵達了海洋。

這是五年前發生的事了，那時她和她的團隊剛結束這個從火星穿越至此的長途旅行不久。當時人們在木衛二的海洋與冰層中發現的資源，加上那些木衛三（Ganymede）殖民地所開採出的資源，再加上木衛一（Iroh）未來可開採鐵礦的潛力，已經讓這顆木星衛星上的各個殖民地擁有獨立建設和發展的潛力，不再完全依賴來自火星和地球的資源。

「博士！」 Raina轉過身，看見她的助手對她說。「我們正在操作無人機進行本次的任務，正準備下潛。敬邀您來旁觀……我們希望您能在一旁觀察。」

她笑著說。「當然。」

他們正將無人機派送到海洋深處，一次比一次更深。他們在抵達這個衛星前預估了海洋的深度是60到150公里，但如今150公里已經被認為是淺層。

「我們正在返回海溝。」當她進門時，團隊的領導人—─Adam博士簡短地向她說明任務。「無人機的耐壓程度可達500公里深。」

「如果要到達海溝底部這樣是不夠深的。」她回道。

「要偵測到底部，這個深度足夠了！」

火山活動在海溝底部是非常普遍的。然而，他們偵測到某個帶有節奏的聲音，近乎完美的規律節奏。這個發現令人興奮，這就是無人機先前需要改良下潛深度的原因！這也是為什麼他們選擇再次下潛，而不單純停留於分析最近在海溝中新發現的微小生命體。

在房間裡的幾個螢幕上展示了三架無人機當前的視角。在大約200公里深時，他們已經很接近海溝的入口處。無人機的燈光描繪出海溝陡峭的岩壁。在熱泉附近的岩石上有幾個小片的白色斑塊，那是一種細菌。

她發現這裡也生長著一片綠色熱藻。他們的無人機返回時機器上自然會覆滿了這些藻類。現在他們已經到達300公里深了。

無人機又開始接收到聲音了。起初它是柔和而規律的，每次讀取間有很長的停頓。

「我們的衛星上有生命。」其中一個無人機操作員笑著說。

無人機到達了400公里深。現在無人機的收音裝置非常清晰地回傳著他們剛才聽到的有節奏的敲擊聲。Raina看了無人機的溫度測量儀，是攝氏50度，且一直攀升。在海溝峭壁上的微生物密度也正在上升。即便這裡乘載了衛星海洋的巨大壓力並受到海溝極端氣候的影響，生命依然存在。

衛星上的其他海溝已經被其他殖民地的居民開發了。其他的海溝也有生命，但沒有一個像木衛二7號領地的海溝中發現的那樣特殊。他們現在已經到達了500公里深。無人機停止下潛。

「更換成捕捉深水影像的特殊鏡頭。」無人機操作員說。

鏡頭的視角映射出無人機周圍的世界改變了。他們關掉燈光，直接觀察深淵的底部。

他們慢慢地搜尋著可能存在的任何微小光源，三個螢幕全暗了。漸漸地，一個畫面浮現。一開始細節很模糊，每一個聲波的震動都干擾著鏡頭，但漸漸地，隨著AI人工智慧逐步將捕捉到的畫面拼湊成一個圖像，畫面開始變得清晰。

「博士？」

Raina看向她的助手回道：「怎麼了？」

「那是什麼？」

那個東西的表面大致平滑，但偶爾有一道類似脊線的突起。它散發出極大的熱能。又一個聲波傳來。他們觀察到海溝的底部擴展後隨即收縮。

「我們的衛星上有生命。」同一個無人機操作員又說了一次。

「Pavlov博士。」Raina抬頭看向Adams博士。（註：Raina的姓氏為Pavlov） 「那看起來的確是有生命的。」Adams博士說。

「從500公里處採取樣本，然後把無人機帶回來，」她說道。「需要多長的改造時間才能讓無人機能進到更深的地方？」

Adams博士聳了聳肩。「我們在這裡做的每一件事都是第一次。不過，我會盡力確保它立刻完成。」