[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 2 - 09:42:56 ]
Welcome to another Space Scientists Online QuestChat! Today's special guest is solar physicist Terry Kucera from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Terry will be ready to answer your questions at 11 am, Pacific (2 pm, Eastern). Please read her bio BEFORE coming to the chat: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/team/kucera.html

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 8 - 10:57:46 ]
RE: [Kaila] Hi I am from Apple Valley middle School
Hi! I am here. Do you have any questions for me?

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 15 - 11:02:54 ]
EVERYONE: Terry Kucera is here and she is busy typing answers to your questions. Please only send your question once! I have the chat in what is called the "moderated mode" so that all questions come to me first, for me to review, and then I post them for all to see.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 16 - 11:02:56 ]
How hot is the sun? Well, it is different temperatures in different places. Down in its center, the core, it is about 15 million degrees C. The surface that we can see in visible light is at about 5600 C - still pretty hot. If you go out to the atmosphere it gets hot again - a few million degrees. We don't really know why the atmosphere is hot like that. The coolest places on the Sun are sunspots. They are about 3500 C. That may sound pretty hot still, but that is cool enough so that there is steam water in sunspots.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 17 - 11:03:42 ]
RE: [Steven] what is it like at nasa?
Working at NASA is fun. There are lots of interesting people here doing neat things.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 20 - 11:05:27 ]
RE: [Kaila] Yah what was the highest level of math that you had in school?
I took a lot of math in school. I took all I could in high school, including calculus, and then I took another 3 years or so in college and even more in graduate school.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 23 - 11:07:30 ]
RE: [Salvador] Is the sun going to blow up some day?
The Sun is too small to blow up in a supernova explosion. We think that one day (in about 5 billion years) the Sun will slowly expand into a huge red giant star. It may even get big enough to absorb the earth at that time. Then we think it will loose its outer layers leaving only a small white dwarf star at the center of the solar system.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 25 - 11:10:14 ]
RE: [Sarin] Why are we learing about the sun? What do the Coronal Diagnostic Spectromer and the Solar UV Meausrement of Emitted Radiation do? What do they tell us about the sun?
We are learning all sorts of things about the Sun. We are studying everything from its insides out to the solar wind that flows past the Earth. CDS and SUMER, the instruments I work with are spectrometers. They measure the Sun's light in detail. We can use them to measure the tmeperatures and motions of different parts of the Sun's atmosphere. We are trying to understand things like "Why is the Sun so hot?" and "What makes the solar wind go?"

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 33 - 11:13:31 ]
RE: [Sarin] Are there many jobs for physics majors? What are they?
Jobs for physics majors can be pretty varied. Some physics majors go onto graduate school and become physicists at universities or in labs in government or in companies. Others get jobs in technical fields, using the skills they learn in physics to help them become engineers, compurter scientists or even lawyers. There are jobs if you are flexible, but there are not many of the university professor jobs that many people think of when they think of physicists.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 34 - 11:15:07 ]
RE: [Steven] about how big and heavy is the sun estimated to be?
You can look up statistics about the Sun at The Nine Planets Sun page: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/sol.html

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 37 - 11:18:09 ]
RE: [Randi] Why do you study the sun, and is it fun to do?
Part of the reason I study the Sun is because it is fun to do. I like working on the kinds of problems involved in doing science research. The Sun itself is interesting for a number of different reasons. Of course it is the source for most of our energy on Earth and affects our lives. Also it is the closest star, so studying it can tell us things about stars in general. Also the Sun provides conditions which we can't copy in any laboratory on earth, so it is interesting to study the physics of material in those conditions.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 39 - 11:20:02 ]
RE: [JZKatie] Hello, Why is the sun orange and yellow????
Actually it would be more accurate to say the Sun is white. It is the color it is because of its temperature. If it were hotter it would be blue, if it were cooler it would be red. One reason we thing of it as orangish is because it looks orange at sunset. That is because the Earth's atmosphere is scattering away the blue light from the Sun (making the sky blue!) so that we just see the orange-red light.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 42 - 11:21:09 ]
RE: [Salvador] What is your job
I am an astronomer working at NASA Goddard Space Center in Maryland. I think my bio says more about that.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 46 - 11:24:56 ]
RE: [Brandon] What was the largest sun flare you recorded?
Solar flares are brightenings on the surface of the Sun. We detect them by looking at X-rays produced by the Sun. You can look at plots of those x-rays at The Space Environment Space Weather page at http://www.sel.noaa.gov/today.html The brightest ones can be tens of millions of degrees -- hotter than the Sun's own core!

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 47 - 11:26:20 ]
RE: [Lindsey] What were you interested in in 7th grade?
I already liked astronomy in 7th grade, although I didn't think I'd be an astronomer. I was thinking of being a physical therapist like my mother. In general, I like to read a lot. I still do that when I have time!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 48 - 11:26:28 ]
EVERYONE: You're asking GREAT questions! Thank you for doing your homework! There are about 100 questions in the queue & Terry is typing as fast as she can!

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 49 - 11:27:18 ]
RE: [DaynaHeather] Can you get a sun burn in space?
Yes, you could get a very bad sunburn in space. The Earth protects us from most of the Sun's dangerous ultraviolet light. Outside of the atmosphere you have to be very careful.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 50 - 11:29:39 ]
RE: [Elizabeth] Could humans recreate the energy given by the sun or would it be impossible?
Hmm, I am not sure exactly what you mean. The Sun itself produces energy by nuclear fusion. We have been able to build bombs that work using nuclear fusion, but have not been able to control it well enough to produce controlled power. Does that answer your question?

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 51 - 11:30:30 ]
RE: [Jordan] Why are our eyes effected when we look directly at the sun? IS it because the sun is so bright and we are not used to it?
Yes it is because the Sun is so bright. Our eyes never could really get used to it - they just are not built to look right at the Sun.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 52 - 11:31:48 ]
RE: [Jose] Do you ever get bored of your job?
Sure, sometimes. I don't think there are any jobs which are totally exciting all the time. Most of the things I do are interesting, however, and I get a lot of say about what I do, so I tend to pick the things I think are most interesting or the most important.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 53 - 11:33:22 ]
RE: [lizzie] Is it true that on the sun it is really hot on one side and really cold on the other?
No, the Sun is hot on both sides! Different parts of it are hotter than others, though, but not entire sides.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 56 - 11:36:26 ]
RE: [MrKaucher] Hi, I'm a math teacher at Apple Valley Middle School. I appreciate your time in answering our questions. This is the first time I did this and started on short notice so I didn't have time to prepare the students as I would have liked. The bell just rang and they are all off to lunch. So we are out for now. Again, I appreciate your time. Bye the way, what is the largest sun flair ever recorded?
Hi. I am not sure about the exact value. It would be an energy value and I'd have to look it up. I'd also have to come up with a good comparison so I could try to explain it to your students.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 69 - 11:41:11 ]
RE: [Jordan] Why are the photos on the SOHO web-site from the EIT pictures different colors?
The images are actually of ultraviolet light. You can't see ultraviolet light so it has no real color. We can show the data so you can see it though and can do that in any colors we like. The EIT observes the Sun in four different wavelengths of light and we usually pick the colors of the images so that the same wavelength is shown in the same color and we can then tell them apart easily.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 70 - 11:41:42 ]
RE: [John] What type of star is the sun?
The Sun is a regular, small, middle-aged star.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 71 - 11:43:58 ]
RE: [DaynaHeather] What encouraged you to become a scientist or even to study the sun??
I liked reading about science and did pretty well in science classes. I had some good teachers and my parents (especially my dad) encouraged me too. I liked studying the Sun because it is both a star and so part of astronomy, but also because it affects us here on Earth. However I would probably be just as happy studying many other things - you just end up specializing in something.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 72 - 11:45:59 ]
EVERYONE: There are about 15 minutes left in today's chat with Terry. Please don't send in anymore questions -- there are still about 225 of them in the queue! Terry is typing as fast as she can and will answer as many as she can!

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 73 - 11:46:17 ]
RE: [JT] Why don't solar eclipses happen more often?
Eclipses only happen when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are lined up just right. There is a nice diagram about this at http://www.earthview.com/tutorial/causes.htm and more information at http://eclipse99.nasa.gov/index.html

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 74 - 11:47:51 ]
EVERYONE: When today's chat with Terry is over, please fill out a short chat survey for us so that we know how we did. You can find the survey at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/qchat-surveys -- Thank you!

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 75 - 11:48:15 ]
RE: [Frosty] Why would the astronomers want to see the sun during a total eclipse, when they can just use a special telescope?
The special telescopes are hard to make and you have to put them in space. Before we went into space we could only get a good look at the Sun's outer atmosphere during an eclipse. Now they are not so important for science as they used to be because we can do observations in space. There are some interesting observations you can still do from the ground, though, and it is a way to sometimes test out ideas for observing the Sun without spending the money to put a new telescope in space.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 76 - 11:49:58 ]
RE: [Lakoyea] was it hard to get your job??
Well, I had to work pretty hard in school, and I actually have to work hard at my job too. Because of that the people here knew I could do the work they needed to get done.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 77 - 11:50:54 ]
RE: [JT] Did Carlton College have a great space program?
They have a good physics department that made physics seem fun and interesting. Most astronomers major in physics in college so that was the important thing.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 78 - 11:52:57 ]
RE: [David] How was the sun created and how did it get its flames
We think that the Sun was formed out of a big cloud of gas that fell in on itself because of gravity. Once you have a huge amount of stuff in one place the pressure at the center is enormous. If there is enough material to form a star then this pressure can actually force the inside of atoms into each other to form new kinds of atoms. This is called nuclear fusion and is what makes the Sun shine.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 80 - 11:58:09 ]
Well, to go back to a previous question, the energy produced in a bright solar flare is 10 million times more than what you get when a volcano explodes.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 83 - 12:02:39 ]
RE: [Shelly] Thank You very Much for your time today! Apple Valley Middle School
You are welcome!

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 89 - 12:06:53 ]
RE: [Darcy] What kind of telescopes do you use to look at the sun with?
All sorts. We look in all different wavelengths of light in all sorts of ways. There are so many ways it would be hard for me to tell you the details here!

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 97 - 12:07:48 ]
RE: [Darcy] Why do ultra voilet rays turn green?
They don't actually. You can't see ultraviolet light, so we have to "change" the color with our computers so that people can look at the data easily.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 102 - 12:08:59 ]
RE: [Logan] What kinds of telescopes do you use @ Nasa??
Again, we use all sorts. NASA speciallizes in telescopes you can send into space. That is important because some kinds of lights can't get down to the Earth's surface through our atmosphere, so we have to go up into space to look at them.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 103 - 12:09:35 ]
RE: [Randi] Why does the sun look so close
Compared to other stars the Sun is very close! Also the Sun is very large. You could fit 109 Earths across the diameter of the Sun!

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 105 - 12:11:00 ]
RE: [Steven] Have you made any important discoveries about the sun?
The spacecraft team I am a part of is finding lots of interesting things about the Sun. We have been able to see what it is like inside. We are also understanding better what is happening in its atmposphere - getting a better idea of where the solar wind comes from and what makes the Sun so hot.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 106 - 12:12:34 ]
EVERYONE: TERRY HAS OFFERED TO STAY ON FOR A BIT LONGER TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS...

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 107 - 12:13:19 ]
RE: [David] What are the main things that you as a SolarPhysicists
Different solar physicists do different kinds of things. I personally help with operating instruments in space and then I analyze the data that come down. Other solar physicists make predictions about what the Sun should be like based on various theories and I test those theories. Still other people build the telescopes that go up into space or are used on the ground.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 108 - 12:15:16 ]
RE: [Steven] how do u wind up working for NASA? you dant exacttly see ads in the paper?
I personally knew people working here and asked them if there were any jobs. Sometimes NASA or the companies which hire people to work here do put ads in the paper, on the Internet, or in magazines which are read by the sorts of people they want to hire.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 109 - 12:16:09 ]
RE: [Sarin] You mentioned working with teachers do you ever get to work one on one with the students?
Sometimes we get college or even high school students working here and I have given talks at schools near here.

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 110 - 12:16:43 ]
RE: [JK] is Calculous fun?
I liked it & it is _very_ useful in physics

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 111 - 12:18:20 ]
RE: [Elizabeth] What is the most exciting thing you have seen through your instruments?
I enjoy looking at things which are exploding off the Sun. I have a little collection of my favorite images of prominences and coronal mass ejections. You can look at it at: http://orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov/~kucera/LPI/portfolio/CME_gallery.html and also look at the general SOHO gallery at: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/gallery/

[ TerryKucera/SolarPhysicist - 113 - 12:19:29 ]
I have to go now. Thanks for all the questions. Goodbye!