Year: 2015-16
School: Sekolah Menengah Kampung Pasir Puteh
Age: 17
State: Perak
Target: Rhea and Tethys
Team members:
Ainul Mutheerah Binti Badrul Hisham
Nur Najihah Binti Azhar
Emira Shahirah Binti Suleman
Nuraina Nabila Binti Ahmad Ruzi
"Cassini Spacecraft or Cassini-Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the Saturn. It was launched on 15th October 1997 and entered the orbit around Saturn on 1st July 2004 after an interplanetary voyage. Cassini can take accurate measurements including details of images in a variety of atmospheric conditions. The light spectra for the next Cassini mission, we choose target 3 because of inadequate information about the occultation between Rhea and Tethys that has never been observed yet.
Occultation means an astronomical event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object. In Target 3, Tethys is hidden by Rhea. Occultation usually happens around Earth known as eclipse but we never heard about the other occultation that happen in the solar system. Using the Cassini spacecraft, Tethys passes by Rhea can be observed carefully. Therefore, there are more chances for astronomers to find answer for the occultation due to the uncertain prediction and rare events.
The occultation between Rhea and Tethys has a lot of hidden mysteries. Both Rhea and Tethys are mostly made of ice water and it orbits around the Saturn. Thus, two mysterious moons are among sixty-two moons that Saturn has. Both moons have their own specialities that can be discovered more by the scientists. Everything in the solar system changes within time including the Saturn's moon. That is why a lot of question was emerged about the new discoveries.
Rhea, the most heavily cratered satellites in the solar system and the second largest moon of the Saturn. On the trailing hemisphere of Rhea, it can be found several bright and wispy lines. These linear features are believed to be fractures and may indicates that Rhea has expanded and contracted due to internal heating and cooling. Scientists can observe whether this occultation will change Rhea's temperature and lead to more bright and wispy lines. Other than that, scientists also could investigate about the tenuous ring system that Rhea's once ever had. The scientists should investigate what causes the ring surrounded Rhea's orbit.
Next, Tethys is a mid-sized moon of Saturn about 1060 kilometres across. The newest discovery about Tethys is about the 'blood trails' or 'tiger scratch'. The red wide line on Tethys that is hundred miles long and only a few miles wide has become an unusual discovery to the scientists. It is the youngest geological because they cut across the older features on Tethys. Focusing on Cassini to that point, the scientists might found the actual reasons for the 'blood trails' mystery.
All the questions that showed up from our research will be answered if Cassini is being focused to target 3. It would also transcend our knowledge about the Saturn's system and there are big chances for targets 3 to yield the best scientific results since it has never been observed before."
