'Postcards From Venus'

Teenage Cape Girardeau artist Tatianna Cwick will be in Germany April 11 to watch when the European Space Agency's Venus Express enters orbit around the second planet from the sun.

She won the trip when her painting was chosen the grand prize winner from among hundreds of entries in a "Postcards From Venus" contest sponsored by the ESA and the Planetary Society.

Tatianna's father, Gary Cwick, is a Southeast Missouri State University geoscience professor and member of the Planetary Society. He urged his daughter to enter the contest and will accompany her on a trip that may be just as exciting for him.

Seventeen-year-old Tatianna plans to study art in college. For the contest, she painted a large volcano on Venus, a planet with many volcanoes and a surface temperature of 900 degrees.

Her artwork will be on display at the Space Operations Centre in Germany.

Congratulations to Tatianna.