Year: 2015-2016
Grade: 5 and 6
School: Liceo Los Robles
City: Maracaibo
Teachers: Euro Carruyo, Jorge Aldana, Lino Gomez
Target: Rhea and Tethys
Team members:
Nicolas Aguado (team leader)
Alejandro Bracho
Federico Leon (team leader)
Javier Borjas
Kevin Rivera
Jose Andres Gonzales (team leader)
Juan Gotopo
Fernando Novoa
Daniel Boscan
Pascual Capitelli
"Cassini-Huygens possesses an array of brilliantly designed set of instruments, very advanced ever launched into space.The Imaging Science Subsystem* has the possibility of observing and detecting subtle variations of Saturn's frozen moons as time passes by. The ccd cameras onboard using the peltier (refrigeration system) reduces thermic noise and therefore give us better chance in observation campaigns that could try to detect small geological processes.
For example Rhea is Saturns second biggest moon, formed mostly by ice and 25 percent rock. We ask: Could Rhea have an interior heat source also that could affect in small processes its surface? Are there any electrolytic processes going on? We read that the craters formed by meteors don't last very long, so that intrigues us a lot. Not to mention its almost imperceptible atmosphere with similar chemical composition as Earths!!(including oxygen).
We admire Linda Spilker's and Geraint Jone´'s opinions on this subject and really wish their teams could detect some good possible trace of an subterranean ocean!!! A clue given by the oxygen and CO2 particles liberation going on.
We ponder & wonder: Could Rhea harbor some type of crude arctic bacteria type life? Continuous observation of Rhea, especially when it passes near Tethys could provide some information of gravitational effects between these 2 moons, we believe.
As experienced when we make telescopic observations at Los Robles astronomy Club star parties, by using different color filters we can appreciate different physical characteristics on planetary surfaces such as we experienced observing Mars, our Moon, Jupiter, even Venus' clouds color variations, so why not try luck with these two moons?
We know by your web site that Rhea is bigger than Tethys, but assuming we were astronauts exploring a new solar system, we could find out whose bigger by using a simple trigonometry method we learned reading Project Astro´s 'How big is the Moon?' Scale of the Solar System, no big deal.
So, in our opinion, these amazing Rhea-Tethys passing by should be the true and most important target, urgently, before aging Cassini wears out!!"
