[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 0 - 10:02:20 ]
Hello! Today's chat with Astronomer Sten Odenwald will begin in approximately 55 minutes. Be sure to read Sten's bio before joining the chat-- http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/team/odenwald.html

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 3 - 10:58:10 ]
Quote from Sten's bio: "...please, don't just look at the sky like an empty canvas that has to be filled. It is already full of some of the most wonderous and exciting things you will ever come to know. Your journey of exploration begins by continuing to be inquisitive and asking your own questions about what you see. The math and science you will learn by day, will enrich your experience...astronomically!"

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 4 - 11:00:53 ]
Hi everyone! Would you like to talk about the sun today? Or planets around other stars? or perhaps a little cosmology? Give me your best shot!!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 6 - 11:05:32 ]
RE: [MrsMock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Hello Sten and Sandy. I have groups of students coming and going but we have some questions prepared.
Cool! Send them in!!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 8 - 11:05:50 ]
RE: [MrsMock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Hello Sten and Sandy. I have groups of students coming and going but we have some questions prepared.
Hello Mrs. Mock and students! We are ready whenever you are :-)

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 9 - 11:06:19 ]
RE: [Susan-deprima/silveroakelementary] Hi we are a second grade class in San Jose, Ca. We want to know a lot about everything.
Gee...Im an astronomer...so do I!!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 10 - 11:06:41 ]
RE: [Susan-deprima/silveroakelementary] Hi we are a second grade class in San Jose, Ca. We want to know a lot about everything.
Welcome Susan! Do you have specific question for Sten? What is that you'd really like to know today?

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 12 - 11:08:50 ]
RE: [Susan-deprima/silveroakelementary] Have you ever been to the location where a shooting star or meteorite has landed?
Nope...I have seen several 'fireballs' in my life; very rare and spectacular, but I have never been at a real landing site..they are real hard to find because the rock 'winks out' several miles up and travels invisibly from there to the ground.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 17 - 11:10:51 ]
RE: [Martin/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] How long has the red spot on Jupiter been going?
Well..people like Galileo should have bee nable to see it, in the early 1600's, but the first recorded sighting is around the late 1600's if my history serves me...so its been 'going' for at least 350 years or so.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 19 - 11:11:51 ]
RE: [Susan-deprima/silveroakelementary] Which planets have you studied about the most?
Actually...none. I don't 'do' planetary astronomy, instead I study how galaxies like our Milky Way were formed and try to find clues to what went on.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 22 - 11:12:27 ]
RE: [Adam/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What would you rather do: exercise and have fun or look through your telescope?
I usually do deep knee bends when I look through the telescope...depending on where its pointed in the sky!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 24 - 11:13:39 ]
RE: [Martin/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Would it ever be possible for man to mine metal off an asteroid belt?
Yea, we dont know of any reason why we couldnt mine for minerals on an asteroid...but it would be so expensive, you would be paying for raw iron and nickle at the same price you pay for gold today!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 26 - 11:14:34 ]
RE: [Jason/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What is your favorite planet and why?
I think Jupiter is pretty cool...big, radioactive, ball of gas, nearly a star...neat stuff.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 29 - 11:14:55 ]
RE: [MrsMock-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] This is the first time some of these students have actually chatted. :-)
Mrs. Mock: We on Quest are thrilled that you and your kids join us on so many of our chats! We think it's fabulous that you offer your kids the opportunity to chat with the folks at NASA! Your kids always come prepared and ask thoughtful questions. We're alwasy glad to see your name :-)

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 30 - 11:15:15 ]
RE: [MrsMock-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] This is the first time some of these students have actually chatted. :-)
Hmm...I would have thought most students naturally like to talk! ;>

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 32 - 11:15:55 ]
RE: [Landon/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Why does Saturn have 5 rings instead of 1 large one?
Actually it has a bazillion rings...thousands, most are less than a mile thick and a few miles wide!!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 34 - 11:17:05 ]
RE: [Yash/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What is the size and length of Saturns rings?
Hmmm...they are about a half mile thick in some places, and if my recollection serves me, they are as far from Saturn as our moon is from the earth...300,000 miles in radius or so.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 36 - 11:18:15 ]
RE: [Susan-deprima/silveroakelementary] Have you ever made a new discovery about something in space?
yes, but its no big deal. Astronomers find interesting things all the time. Its just that you cant really spend time with everything unless there is some point to it...

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 37 - 11:18:22 ]
RE: [3rdGradeStudents-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What is Deep Space? Are the planets in our solar system in Deep Space?
Excellent question 3rd grade students!!!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 39 - 11:20:13 ]
RE: [Adam/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Do you know why Plutos core is so large compared to Mercury?
Well...i dont know much about it, but from what i know, we can only estimate core sizes, and also the corse of the outer planets don't physically work the same way the ones in the inner solar system do. Plutos core may be rocky, but it is surrounded by dense ice...and we really dont know the details until we send a probe out there to examine Pluto's gravity and mass carefully.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 40 - 11:21:18 ]
RE: [Anna/5thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Which planet has the biggest core?
Hmmm...Jupiter's core region may contain a rocky nucleus with about 12 times the mass of the earth in it, but its surrounded by a dense hydrogen mantle 50,000 degrees hot or more.

[ MrsMock-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona - 41 - 11:21:23 ]
[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 30 - 11:15:15 ] RE: [MrsMock-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] This is the first time some of these students have actually chatted. :-) Hmm...I would have thought most students naturally like to talk! ;> I should have put chat in quote marks! :-> Their teacher made that very comment this morning when I asked for a show of hands of those who had never chatted!!!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 43 - 11:22:42 ]
RE: [3rdGradeStudents-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What is Deep Space? Are the planets in our solar system in Deep Space?
Well... astronomers do not use the term 'Deep Space' especially capitalized. Instead we think of 'interplanetary', 'interstellar' and 'intergalactic' space when we refer to things in the universe at different distances from us.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 44 - 11:23:32 ]
RE: [4thGradeStudents-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Do you mostly look beyond our solar system? Do astronomers study our solar system or other solar systems?
yes to all thre questions...it depends on what your specialty is..and there are many! Heck, everyone is 'doing' their own specialty topic in astronomy!!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 46 - 11:25:10 ]
RE: [Matt/4thGrade-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Did someone find a 10th planet in our solar system?
No...we dont even know if there is such a thing...it would have to be at least as big as Pluto to qualify. Astronomers have found 70+ objects beyond the orbit of Neptune, and one of these is about 300 miles across. Not quite what we want to call a planet, and about the third or fourth largest asteroid we know about.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 48 - 11:25:48 ]
RE: [Susan-deprima/silveroakelementary] Have you ever seen other universes?
No..it is impossible to see another universe.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 49 - 11:27:12 ]
RE: [Will-Will/amateurastronomer] Is the universe finite or infinite?
We dont really know yet. It really, really, really doesnt look like there is enough stuff around to make it a closed-finite universe, but this new thing called the Cosmological Constant really messes everything up when thinking about open/closed finite/infinite...

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 52 - 11:30:34 ]
RE: [Susan-deprima/silveroakelementary] Good bye. We have to go to lunch. Thank you for your information and time. Silver oak Elementary
Goodbye Susan and thanks for joining us today. Your questions were really good! Hope you can come back again for another chat!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 53 - 11:30:45 ]
RE: [3rdGradeStudents-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What is the difference between those inter spaces?
Hi...well its just a matter of size...interplanetary; out to plutos orbit or so, interstellar..up to thousands of light years, intergalactic...up to billions of light years and outside of galaxies.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 56 - 11:33:35 ]
RE: [Will-Will/amateurastronomer] If other universes can't be measured, how is it possible to talk of their existence at all?
Scientists are allowed to speculate...but the fact of the matter must remain that everything beyond the current horizon to the visible universe is totally unavailable for us to observe in any scientific manner by retrieving data from it. If there are universe out there, they are in the domain of speculative science...

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 57 - 11:34:30 ]
RE: [Steven/3rd-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] How big were the stars from the Hoble space telescope?
Well.. the Hubble Space telescope orbits the earth about 200 miles up, so the stars are the same distance as they are from the earth...up to several thousands of light years.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 58 - 11:35:35 ]
RE: [Steven/3rd-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] How big were the stars from the Hoble space telescope?
Hmmm...if you mean their sizes, stars come in many different sizes and it doesnt really matter how you look at them..even from earth.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 59 - 11:37:17 ]
RE: [StenOdenwald/Astronomer] We dont really know yet. It really, really, really doesnt look like there is enough stuff around to make it a closed-finite universe, but this new thing called the Cosmological Constant really messes everything up when thinking about open/closed finite/infinite...
With the cosmological constant, you can have universes with finite spaces which expand forever. Without the cosmological constant, finite-space universes must recollapse in the future.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 61 - 11:38:57 ]
Does anyone else have a question for Sten?!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 62 - 11:39:43 ]
RE: [Lauren-LaurenHarries/EasterbrookSchool] Where did Neptune's gases come from?
Welcome Lauren!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 65 - 11:41:31 ]
RE: [Lauren-LaurenHarries/EasterbrookSchool] Where did Neptune's gases come from?
Well...we know that when stars form, they form out of collapsing clouds that are rich in methane, ammonia and other compounds. By the time planets form from this stuff, they take-on much of the same chemistry unless they are too close to their forming star, then the lighter gases evaporate and you are left with rocky cores. The planets beyond Jupiter are far enough away that their composition was fixed by the very cold temperatures 'out there' and the compounds that were common. Astronomers think they know how to figure these things out more or less.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 67 - 11:42:17 ]
RE: [Will-Will/amateurastronomer] Is spacetime a thing?
Yes..it is another name for the gravitational field of the universe. Welcome to General relativity!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 68 - 11:43:02 ]
RE: [Chris1st-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] When my teacher came and got me I was reading a book about the Solar System. We just made an art project of all 9 planets and the sun.
That's great! Did you have fun trying to remember the names of the planets in their proper order?

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 70 - 11:44:37 ]
RE: [Lauren-LaurenHarries/EasterbrookSchool] If Neptune is a gas gaint, why is Neptune formed in such a tight ball?
Hmm...I dont really understand the question. Like Jupiter and Saturn which are only slightly bigger, Uranud and Neptune have a core of rocky material that is WAY smaller than the mass of the planet which is mostly in gases such as hydrogen, helium, methane and so on...its a ball of gas mostly

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 72 - 11:45:37 ]
RE: [steven1st-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] How much mass do black holes take in them?
As much as they want, and until you stop feeding them things like gas clouds, stars and other pieces of matter. They continue to grow in size, literally, until the end of time.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 73 - 11:46:32 ]
EVERYONE: Just a reminder... Quest would love to know how we're doing with our chats. Please fill out the short questionnaire at the following URL when this chat is over. Thank you :-) http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/qchat-surveys

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 74 - 11:46:49 ]
RE: [Will-Will/amateurastronomer] So spacetime is gravitons? What about photons?
We dont know if the basic structure of space time is in the form of gravitons or not. Photons are just the particles of a field which is embedded in the gravitational field, like the marbeling in a cake.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 75 - 11:49:32 ]
EVERYONE: There are just 10 minutes left in our chat with Sten... If you have a few more questions, please send them now :-)

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 77 - 11:51:46 ]
RE: [steven3rd-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] We receive a subsceription to expres news.We read about black holes and stuff like that!
That's pretty hard stuff for 3rd graders! It must seem awefully confusing compared to studying planets and the sun and things like that!!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 80 - 11:56:16 ]
RE: [Chris1st-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What is a wheather balloon?
That's a balloon, made of plastic, that is inflated with helium and that carries equipment on a teather underneith it to measure ari speed, temperature and stuff like that. Just by watching the balloon from the ground you can measure how fast the winds are blowing 'up there', bringing in coulds and bad weather systems.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 81 - 11:57:40 ]
RE: [Will-Will/amateurastronomer] So then might there be a still larger field in which spacetime is embedded?
Could be...and we could be living in just a tiny patch of a bigger spacetime that also came out of the same Big Bang...but these 'spaces' are outside our observable universe horizon beyond 15 billion light years.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 83 - 11:58:36 ]
RE: [StenOdenwald/Astronomer] Could be...and we could be living in just a tiny patch of a bigger spacetime that also came out of the same Big Bang...but these 'spaces' are outside our observable universe horizon beyond 15 billion light years.
Figure that if we DO live in an infinite universe that came out of 'our' big bang, theres lots of interesting 'space' way out there!!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 84 - 11:58:57 ]
RE: [John3rd-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] If we got sucked in to a black Hole where would we be and would we exist?
You would be dead!!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 85 - 11:59:49 ]
Ok, it looks like it's time for us to let Sten get back to work. Thank you to everyone for joining us today and for your great questions to Sten! It was obvious that you did your homework :-) Please join us again for another chat next week with Sten's colleague Terry Kucera. Please register for her chat at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/chats/sched.html

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 87 - 12:01:10 ]
RE: [Will-Will/amateurastronomer] The explosion that recently occurred that was similar to the big bang, could that have been the creation of a new universe?
No..that explosion was not at all similar to the Big Bang because it did not create 'spacetime'. Thats what makes the big bang nothing like any explosion we have ever experienced or seen.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 88 - 12:01:57 ]
OK...see you all later...awesomly good questions!! Keep looking up, and pray for clear skies!!

[ MrsMock-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona - 89 - 12:02:02 ]
Thank you from Chris/1st, Steven/3rd, John/3rd and all the rest at MSOC!! @:->