[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 2 - 09:35:25 ]
Hello to our early chat participants. Today's Women of NASA chat with Mona Kessel from Goddard Space Flight Center will begin in approximately 25 minutes. Be sure you have read Mona's profile at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/bios/mk.html" to prepare your questions.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 3 - 09:36:26 ]
Once the chat begins, Mona will attempt to answer your questions as quickly as she can. But PLEASE BE PATIENT. Today's chat may be MODERATED to allow Mona to keep up with our questions.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 4 - 09:37:19 ]
During moderation, a few questions will be posted in the chat room at a time. But DON'T WORRY. New questions will be posted as Mona answers those ahead of you.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 5 - 09:39:44 ]
At the conclusion of today's chat, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats. We look forward to hearing from you!

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 7 - 09:55:42 ]
RE: [MonaKessel/GSFC] Good morning, or actually good afternoon from here. I'm ready to go as soon as the students are on line.
Mona, terrific! We'll get started as soon as folks log on. Thanks for chatting with us again!

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 8 - 09:58:53 ]
Hello and welcome to today's Women of NASA chat with Mona Kessel from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center! Mona studies the environment between the Sun and the Earth. Her present study is to investigate the dynamic nature of Earth's bow shock. The bow shock is important because it is here that the solar wind is slowed, heated, and partially deflected around the Earth.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 9 - 09:59:09 ]
And now, here is Mona Kessel to answer your questions.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 14 - 10:03:33 ]
RE: [LaurenAlexWhitneyJulia] Do other planets have magnetic fields?
Most other planets do have magnetic fields - Mars though only has some remnant magnetic material and Venus has no magnetic field.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 19 - 10:05:45 ]
RE: [brianneMattJohn] How fast does the solar wind move?
The solar wind typically travels at 400 km/sec which is nearly 1,400,000 miles an hour. During some times in the solar cycle the speeds nearly double.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 21 - 10:07:44 ]
RE: [PatrickDeaganStephen-Mr.Sabin/AndoverElementarySchool] Do you get info from the MCI satalite in Andover,Maine were my grand father works?
I assume that MCI is the telephone company and if so then no, we don't get that at NASA. We have satellites that measure fields and particles whereas MCI is primarily for communication.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 22 - 10:09:31 ]
RE: [Bryan/ruralhall-mrs.mcd/ruralhall] I'm a 4th grader; have you ever worked in North Carolina or at the Research Triangle Park?
No, but I have worked in England, in Georgia, and Kansas. I have also traveled quite a lot in Europe and the far east as part of my NASA duties.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 23 - 10:10:22 ]
RE: [Jarrod/ruralhall-mrs.mcd/ruralhall] I'm a 4th grader; what is the favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of my job is research into new things about the Sun-Earth connection.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 27 - 10:12:23 ]
RE: [Dustin/ruralhall-mrs.mcd/ruralhall] I'm a 4th grader; Have you ever wanted to go on a shuttle mission to do experiments?
I would love to fly on a shuttle mission! I think it would be very interesting and exciting to see the Earth from space. It is possible that I may get to some time (though probably unlikely) - maybe you can!

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 28 - 10:14:26 ]
RE: [Brennan/ruralhall] I'm a 4th grader; Have you ever trained astronauts for their missions?
No, I have not trained astronauts. The training they require when they become astronauts is getting used to weightlessness and learning the workings and procedures of the shuttle. I don't know much about those.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 30 - 10:17:50 ]
RE: [Kate] What kind of computer programs do you use or make for keeping track of data? Is it fun to do your work?
We use a wide variety of computers here including PCs, Macintosh, UNIX machines like Sun Solaris and Alphas just to name a few. We try to keep up with the latest and fastest machines. A lot of what I do is fun - talking with you is fun - having access to the latest data and newest technologies is fun and research can be fun. There are other things that are less fun but that is true of everything.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 34 - 10:21:47 ]
RE: [Justin/ruralhall] I'm a 4th grader; how do you study events and objects between the earth and the sun?
We have several satellites making measurements of the Sun and of the region ahead of the Earth as well as ones orbits closer to Earth. We can see something happen on the Sun like a giant explosion sending particles our way, then we can measure them just before they arrive and then measure the effects on Earth. For the most part these particles flow around us because our magnetic field protects us and does not let them in, but a few do come in with a large solar event and sometimes that can cause problems like communication satellites (which orbit lower) to fail or power grids to have failures. We are watching all the time.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 35 - 10:25:13 ]
RE: [MarkEstherRebecca] What is plasma?
Plasma is essentially ionized gas - which means that a gas like hydrogen instead of being made up of a proton and electron has had the electron stripped off. The protons and electrons then travel separately and they are each charged so that interesting electric fields can develop between them. I don't know if you have yet studied protons and electrons or know that all elements are made up of these.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 36 - 10:28:15 ]
RE: [Theresa] Do you have any advise for a female college student who wants to work for NASA and gets A's in Astronomy and Physics, but is only average in calculus?
I would say to work harder at calculus. Though I would be surprised to hear this of an advanced physics student because physics is really just applied calculus. It would be difficult to succeed far in physics without knowing calculus. This is less true for astronomy though math is still essential.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 41 - 10:29:43 ]
RE: [DevinEliCandaceNicky] We will go to Telstar Middle School, from Andover Elementary School.How old is the Telstar satellite?
I'm sorry but I am not familiar with the Telstar satellite. If I had more time, I would look it up on the web for you.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 42 - 10:32:46 ]
RE: [TomBrandonDavid] what is a field phenomenon?
It would be different or possibly unexplained behavior of magnetic or electric fields. Physics predicts how these fields behave under normal circumstances, but we are always looking for the abnormal.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 43 - 10:35:39 ]
RE: [TimLindsey] What caused the coronal ejection that dameged the Telstar satellite?
Ah, now I remember the Telstar satellite because it was destroyed - it was only a few years old I believe. Coronal ejections happen fairly often (during solar maximum maybe a few a day) but they don't always come directly at Earth. They are caused deep in the corona or possibly lower by twisting magnetic fields - the tension builds up (like in a spring) and when it gets too great it explodes outward.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 46 - 10:40:04 ]
RE: [RachelAbbyJanelle] How do the Nothern lights happen?
The Northern lights are cause by charged solar particles (protons and electrons) precipitating down through the upper atmosphere (like rain from the clouds) and interacting with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere. The solar particles have enough energy to transmit some of it to an electron in one of the atmospheric particles - when that electron settles back down to its ground state it gives off the energy in the form of light. The different colors depend on which kind of atmospheric particle was disturbed.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 49 - 10:42:55 ]
RE: [Anne] Do you think there is another planet after pluto in our solar system?
I have read about this recently - some evidence from 2 different groups looking at the orbits of comets which pass near us occasionally but in similar patterns. This suggests that maybe a Jupiter size planet or possibly a brown dwarf star is orbiting a long way out - too far to see. This would be at least 600 times further away than Pluto. But this is just a theory at this point, we don't know for sure.

[ mrsmcd/ruralhall-mrs.mcd/ruralhall - 52 - 10:45:53 ]
Our students have to leave the lab now. Thank you so much for the opportunity for our students to ask questions and observe the chat. The archive copy will go home with students to generate more conversations. We appreciate your time.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 53 - 10:46:41 ]
RE: [John] How big do solar flares get?
Solar flares and prominences can extend 1/2 or 1 solar radii away from the surface - which means they can extend out into space as far away as the size of the sun. They tend to occur over a smaller region on the surface, maybe in a region the size of North Carolina. They can also extend much farther into space if they are strong enough - all the way to Earth though then their connection back to the Sun is weak.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 54 - 10:47:28 ]
RE: [mrsmcd/ruralhall-mrs.mcd/ruralhall] Our students have to leave the lab now. Thank you so much for the opportunity for our students to ask questions and observe the chat. The archive copy will go home with students to generate more conversations. We appreciate your time.
Mrs. McDermon, we're always happy to have your students online with us to chat. Please send your feedback to us regarding today's chat, at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats. We hope to hear from you again!

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 55 - 10:49:37 ]
RE: [AmyNicoleFarrington] Wen did you start being intrested in physics?
I was always interested in math and I had one science/mystery book that I read over and over around the age of 10. I finally took physics in high school and knew that I would go in that direction from then on.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 56 - 10:50:05 ]
RE: [Patrick-Mr.Sabin/AndoverElementarySchool] Have you ever seen a rocket launch
Not in person, though I hope to some day.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 62 - 10:57:22 ]
RE: [Theresa-TheresaS./CCSF] Do you work from a model of the sun, in addition to your observable data? If so, how do you determine the size of the core and what is it (the size of the core)?
There are models of the Sun's interior but it is a very complicated system which is not yet well understood. The radius of the sun is about 700,000 km - I don't have the exact number of the core to hand but it is less than half of this.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 63 - 10:57:47 ]
RE: [BrianneWhitney-Mr.Sabin/AndoverElementarySchool] What does your office look like?
I am about to move into a new office - I currently share one with one other person. I have a Power Macintosh G3 on a large desk with several filing cabinets and bookshelves filled with books, presentations, notes, and such. My computer is connected to a very fast network and I can contact any of the hundreds of computers in the area. I also have a window with a view of woods.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 65 - 11:01:01 ]
RE: [Caroline-Caroline] What do you think about the future of them who works with astronomy and physics? I´m planning for a future as astronomer and it would be interesting to know.
There are still many interesting challenges left, some none of us probably have any idea of now. The future should have more women in the field than is currently the case - only about 12% of us are women now. There will be faster and better computers so modeling will become more and more important. There will be better instruments capable of new measurements. I would definitely encourage you to pursue this course.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 66 - 11:03:15 ]
RE: [Theresa-TheresaS./CCSF] Any books you think interested physics folk should read?
I don't know if you are interested in novels or science books. You might be interested in a book called Flatland which is about a 2 dimensional universe (we live in 3D of course) and the problems this entails.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 67 - 11:03:36 ]
This concludes today's chat with Mona Kessel from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. We would like to thank everyone for joining us today. Our special thanks to Mona Kessel for her sharing her career expertise with us online today.

[ MonaKessel/GSFC - 68 - 11:03:48 ]
RE: [Theresa-TheresaS./CCSF] Thank you so much for your time and thoughtful answers. They are very much appreciated.
You are welcome. It was a pleasure. Good luck to all of you.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 69 - 11:06:05 ]
We hope you can join us for our next Women of NASA Chat with Debbie Martinez, on Thursday, October 14. Check the Women of NASA chat schedule at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/won-chat.html.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 70 - 11:06:35 ]
Remember to send your comments about today's chat to us at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats. Have a great day!