Maria Elisei and Deea Parascan
School: Gymnasium School no. 79
City: Bucharest
Topic: Ariel
Although humans have made many discoveries throughout time, the Universe remains the most mysterious of all. Ariel, one of Uranus’ moons, seen only halfway for the first time on the 24th of October 1851, awaits to be studied by humans. But why do we want to study Ariel? What awaits on its other side?
We chose to write about Ariel because of its unique surface. Being Uranus’s youngest moon, it has a few large craters and many small ones. Due to the fact that it has the most recent geologic activity we assume that volcanic flows have taken place on the moon. When the tectonic plates overlap a gap forms in between their ends, where the magma eventually comes out, which then, in contact with the air, turns into lava. Over time, the lava overlaps with itself and that’s how volcanoes are formed.
We mentioned the process of forming volcanoes, and we believe that at least one is already on Ariel. But if Voyager 2 hasn’t captured a volcano on the half we have already seen, then where are these volcanoes located? On the other side! We know that rovers land on volcanic rock, this making the moon an easier and safer place to explore. It also isn’t new that Ariel is close to the edge of our solar system and it could contribute as a recharging station for the RTG, without which rockets couldn’t fly so far. They would station on the moon from where they would then go outside the solar system to explore our galaxy.
Ariel has the potential to be explored: an ideal surface with few large craters, plenty of mysteries which need to be discovered and it can be a help to get to explore outside the solar system! So, what are we waiting for?
