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Stage 2 English 2018
Assessment Type II: Creating Text
Science Magazine Article
SACE Registration Number
7 5 5 7 3 5 X
Word Count
944
After spending almost a century searching for extraterrestrial life, NASA’s Langley Research Center has found
microbes on Enceladus- one of Saturn’s 53 moons.
Since early physicists explored the possibility of An Eye in the Sky
searching for extraterrestrial life using radio waves, the In 1959, early physicists Phillip Morrison and
broader scientific community has been fixated on Giuseppe Cocconi explored the possibility of using radio
discovering ways to probe the solar system. New waves to transmit and receive information. This theory
research into the ice-rich surface of one of Saturn’s 53 was tested one year later by astrologists of South
moons, Enceladus, has uncovered a frozen colony of Australia’s Flinders University, who utilised an antenna
organisms. Coined Arproteria Enceladus, the name is an to scan the cosmos for extraterrestrial signals.
ode to the similarities between the structure of archaea, Chronicled by NASA (National Aeronautic and Space
protists and bacteria- three categories of life on Earth. Administration), the search found two sun-like stars
There is hope that this will be used to eradicate within half of a light year of Earth. Although this find
diseases. may seem innocuous to the untrained eye, it could
“The discovery of A. Enceladus as the first indicate the possibility of what astrologists consider a
unicellular, extraterrestrial life form is incredibly Goldilocks Zone. This is an area not too hot nor too cold to
promising", explains Dr Walter Brown of the Langley sustain life- akin to Earth. Expensive and
Research Centre in South Australia. “This gives time-consuming missions such as those sponsored by
potential to the possibility of large, multicellular SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
organisms on other natural satellites and genetic Organisation) have been conducted in the early 2000’s,
learning utilised to eradicate human diseases.” however, no other signs of life have been discovered in
the vastness of deep space.
A New Generation of Space Crawlers
In 2008, NASA launched a competition to catalyse the
next generation of space exploration. After almost 300
participating laboratories across the globe were assessed
on their ability to create exploratory programs, a $3.6
billion grant was given to the Langley Research Centre.
This enabled the purchase of 323 low-diameter, mixed-use
telescopes, equipped with the capability of receiving
signals from 1.6 light-years away- a distance so large, one
could travel to the sun and back over one million times.
Microscopic view of Arproteria Enceladus on its home of Enceladus, Mixed-use- meaning the utilisation of ultrasound, x-ray
one of Saturn’s 53 moons.