Follow this link to skip to the main content

International Edition Winners 2009: Romania (Age: 12-13)

International Edition Winners 2009: Romania (Age: 12-13)


Kis Melania, Vanessa Popescu, Beatrice Toader and Natalia Todoran
ROMANIA

Kis Melania, Vanessa Popescu, Beatrice Toader and Natalia Todoran

Age: 12 - 13; Prof. Szatmari Aurora-Dorina

Nicolae Balcescu School -- Oradea, Romania


" A much anticipated day came! Melanie, Vanessa, Beatrice and Natalia have emotions. A few weeks ago they had participated to a contest named "Cassini-Astronomer" and won first place and a trip. The competition had a tradition of 50 years in Romania. Natalia's grandmother told them how she won the contest in the first edition in 2009.Thank's to her the girls began to be interested in astronomy. Then they had been fortunate to be guided by a passionate teacher.

At the appointed hour the girls were present at the space base. Immediately, two friendly astronauts, a man and a woman, took the girls. They told the girls that they will accompany them on the whole trip won to ... Saturn. The girls jumped up for joy!

Together with the two astronauts delegates of IASA (International Aeronautics and Space Administration), had descended on Saturn in the ship the latest technology, based on the "worm hole". In-flight girls received the files and they understood very quickly what they have to do.

Natalia took notes in a notebook: atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and other small scale elements.
Beatrice made a hole in the ground with a type of laser. It seems that Saturn's internal structure consists of a core of rock and ice, surrounded by a thick layer of metallic hydrogen in a gaseous outer layer.

Vanessa cipher with a camera fixed on her arm. Wind speed was less than 1 800 km / h - the wind speed recorded on the planet Saturn.

Melania assessed that the magnetic field's strength intermediate between that of Earth's strong field and Jupiter's.
The girls knew that Saturn has 61 moons, but what has attracted attention was the position of Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn.
Then they realized that the surprise offered by the IASA is much higher than expected! They will be witnessed an eclipse of Titan! First Titan eclipse ever seen on Saturn, by earthly!

Titan was positioned in the sun direction. Titan's atmosphere is made up of nitrogen in gaseous form. It had a shade of orange and it was surrounded by clouds, which prevented seeing from the satellite surface. The time that was expected was going to begin. Titan passed in front of the sun slowly, as a snail. The shade of orange that it had, became a bright orange, then red to claret, colours became increasingly dark. When Titan covered the sun, it was entirely black, as the oil.
The girls remained speechless, everything seemed unreal. The eclipse lasted 5 minutes, after that the Titans regained the old look.
The girls had done some tests, took soil samples, and then they got on the spaceship. But before departure they had another surprise! A shower of meteorites took place near Titan's, create a superb celestial spectacle.

The girls were very excited to narrate to earthly what they saw; especially to Natalia's Grandmother. "