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Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382/ Diya Chacko 818-393-5464 NEWS RELEASE: 2008-111 June 16, 2008 Students Chosen as Cassini Scientists for a Day Four students have won the Cassini Scientist for a Day contest, with most choosing Rhea, Saturn's second-largest moon, as the best place for scientists to study using NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Contest participants had to choose one of three target areas for Cassini's camera: Saturn's moon Enceladus, Rhea, or a section of Saturn's rings that includes the tiny moon Pan. The students had to write an essay explaining why their chosen snapshot would yield the most scientific rewards, and the winners were invited to discuss their essays with Cassini scientists via teleconference. The essays were judged by a panel of Cassini scientists, mission planners, and the education and outreach team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, This year's winners are located in Michael Keefe, an eighth-grader from "A photograph of Rhea would not just give us clues about what forces are at work upon it, but also what forces have worked on other satellites," Keefe wrote in his essay. Matt Pleatman and Noah Van Valkenburg, 11th-grade students from Ben Basalik, a 6th-grade student from "This moon is unusual because it reflects almost 100 percent of the sunlight that strikes it and although it is cold, it has many features that suggest that it is generating heat," Basalik wrote in his essay. The next opportunity to participate in the Cassini Scientist-for-a-Day contest will be in September. More information is online at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/scientist/. More information on the Cassini-Huygens mission is at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.
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