Year: 2015-2016
School: Esenevler Mah. Dr. Rüstem Eyübo lu Sok
Grade: 10
Teacher: Aynur Karabulut
City: Maslak - Istanbul
Target: Rhea and Tethys
"For the Cassini scientists' next mission to uncover the mysteries of Saturn's system, I am strongly in favor of the fact that we have to choosing the Target 3: Rhea and Tethys. I perfectly believe that the observation on these two moons will give us ground-breaking facts to understand their mysteries. The moons are unusual in many ways that make them very unique from other targets. The question of actual core materials with the possible ring of Rhea and the unknown "scratches" of Tethys have not been fully-explained yet. If we conduct the next mission of Cassini on these two moons, we can learn new and unusual information!
The interior of Rhea poses a question on its materials. As the Cassini research scientist mentions, the moon has a rocky core. However, the icy body contradicts the claim. I believe if the cameras of Cassini spacecraft are focused on Rhea we may have a chance to analyze the core. The indicators like Rhea's temperature variations, the motion can be taken as main focuses to fully understand it. As they support the idea of having rocky core, the presence of the ice still has also strong stance. Moreover, Rhea's other mystery, which is question of ring formation of a moon, must also be considered. As the magnetosphere of Saturn has less energetic electrons near Rhea, the electrons may be absorbed by unknown substances! If the theories are proved by the following mission, we may have a chance to observe the ring better. Hence, we may have a new question to answer: Is this ring's member members have an effect? The possible members may collide into Rhea and contribute to the core of the moon. With Cassini's cameras, we can find some tips about them.
Tethys has vast majority of water-ice which make it little bit distinguished from other moons of Saturn. These formations bring some possibility of dark material on the moon's surface. Also, the spectral property of "dark material" of ice brings the candidates of nano-phase iron or hematite. Recently, the new findings show that Tethys has some red "tiger scratches"!
As we see reddish color, the material of this "scratch" is also a question to answer by this mission. Iron-rich Mars has also red surface! I believe that the tiger scratches are formed by a bombardment of unknown particles on iron from the magnetosphere. The possible iron is may be combined with the oxygen in ice and these particles start the reactions to produce these red scratches. I believe the next mission on Target 3 will help us to uncover these mysteries!
Consequently, the next mission of Cassini should be target three. The pros of the next target will give us a chance to illuminate the mysteries of these two moons. So, we can analyze them better and make further hypothesis to ask new questions. The effect of ring on Rhea and the unknown scratches with their materials of Tethys will be ground-breaking results for scientific communities!"
