Cassini scientist for a day competition 2012
The 2012 edition of the 'Cassini Scientist for a Day' competition is now open to entry from students. The competition is designed to give the participants a taste of life as a scientist. Students are invited to submit a 500-word essay explaining their choice of one of three targets to be imaged by the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn.
Be a Cassini scientist for a day
The team working on the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission have set aside valuable observing time for educational purposes and they will use this to take images as part of the 'Cassini Scientist for a Day' competition. School students from participating countries must choose one of three targets that Cassini will image and write an essay to justify their choice to a panel of experts.
European competition
Entries are welcome from students in any ESA Member State, ESA Cooperating State and Europlanet members that are currently participating in the competition, namely: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
The closing date for the competition in these countries is 23:59 CET, 3 December 2012.
Essays must be submitted to the appropriate national organiser who will select the winners for that nation. Note that competition rules and age categories may vary from country to country.
Contact details for the national organisers can be found here.
Winners of the competition held in ESA Member States, ESA Cooperating States and Europlanet members will receive a special ESA goodie bag and certificate. In addition, the winning essays will be published on the ESA website.
Which of these three targets would you choose?
To enter the competition, students should study each of the three targets that Cassini will image and decide which one they think will yield the best science results. The three targets are:
1. Pan – the shepherd moon
2. The F-ring
3. Saturn
Cassini-Huygens mission
The Cassini-Huygens mission is an international endeavour between NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). In 2004, after a journey of nearly seven years the spacecraft, comprising NASA's Cassini orbiter and ESA's Huygens probe, was the first to enter orbit around Saturn.
In January 2005, the Huygens probe touched down on the surface of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. This is the only landing to take place in the outer Solar System and the furthest from Earth.
The Cassini spacecraft is currently in orbit around Saturn providing scientists with an abundance of information about the giant planet and its moons.
A strong European involvement in the Cassini-Huygens mission
The Huygens probe was developed by ESA and many European countries were involved in the development of the 12 instruments on-board the Cassini orbiter. Data returned to Earth by the Huygens probe, along with data from the ongoing Cassini mission, are studied by hundreds of scientists from around the world. Many of the scientists participating in this international mission of exploration and discovery are European.
Contact information
Nicolas Altobelli
ESA Cassini–Huygens Project Scientist
Email: nicolas.altobelli@sciops.esa.int
ESA Science Education
SciEdu@esa.int
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