International Edition Winners 2009: Iran (Secondary)
International Edition Winners 2009: Iran (Secondary)
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| Amir Reza Kamkar | ||||
| Secondary School | ||||
| Iran | ||||
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"Saturn has been an attractive planet for humanity throughout the history, from the ancient cosmologists who knew it as the last planet, to Galileo who observed Saturn with an elliptic shape with his small hand-made telescope, to today’s scientists who send probes to increase their knowledge of Saturn, its moons, and mysteries around this marvelous planet Let’s see what is unknown to us around Saturn, that a manmade spacecraft millions of kilometers away from our home planet should focus on and take photos of it. Let’s take a glance on the target options to get closer to the answer. One of the targets is the big moon of Saturn, Titan, with a thick atmosphere that limits the view of Titan’s surface in the photos taken with visible light. In my point of view, this is the main reason to exclude Titan, along with other reasons, one of which is that more than 4 years ago Huygens was sent to Titan, landed on the surface and sent significant information. Although there are still scientific questions about Titan, while not all of the information sent by Huygens is analyzed, and the photos taken in visible light will not show the surface of the moon, it seems that photographing from Titan is not the most cost efficient target for Cassini. Regarding Saturn and its rings, it should be noted that our unsolved questions are not too many to make it the main target of photographing, unless there is not an exclusive event with a high scientific value happening. Also less detailed studies of Saturn can be done from earth. But one of the attractive worlds that have stayed unheard is Tethys; a pock faced moon with a thin atmosphere, that does not cover our view in the visible light, and a moon with huge craters which are attractive to us. This target has not been the subject of many studies, and studying the rings of Saturn can complement it to make a perfect target of photographing for Cassini. One of the attributes to study is the giant crater on the Tethys surface. Investigating what has made this crater and whether it is possible that such an impact to happen again are also some of the reasons that make me choose this target. Also, studying the rings, these mysterious rings of Saturn, while they cannot be seen from the Earth can be an interesting opportunity to reveal more of their hidden secrets." |
