A group of scientists and researchers from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) interacted with the Pakistani students in a virtual chat on Wednesday.
The fourth graders from a school in Karachi had written a letter to the scientists and observers at NASA and asked them about space and astronomy. The science teacher posted the letter from students on her Twitter account and tagged NASA in her tweet. She asked people to spread the word and help them connect to NASA.
Read more: Pakistan Space Program: Fawad Ch aiming for the moon
The letter had names of students, their age, and questions. “These fourth graders have some questions for you. @NASA@Space_Station @NASAEarth @NASA_Johnson @NASA_Astronauts @NASAKennedy @MarkRober @DestinSandlin @TheSpaceGal@neiltyson,” wrote the teacher, named Aimun, on Twitter.
A few hours later, Aimun received interesting replies from scientists and researchers connected to NASA.
Kevin, a software engineer from NASA, answered Haniyah’s question first.
Haniyah, It does rain diamonds on Jupiter! And Saturn! And probably Uranus and Neptune! Lightning and other things turn the methane in the atmosphere into carbon. As it falls deeper, the air gets super dense and hot crushing the carbon into graphite then into diamonds!
— Kevin M. Gill (@kevinmgill) October 15, 2020
Then a planetary geologist, Ulrich Kohler, a planetary geologist, also gave interesting replies to the questions of student.
Moreover, Emmy-nominated host of ‘Xploration Outer Space’ Emily Calandrelli also responded to the questions of the students.
Alisha – All different types! Some popular rockets that you'll see will use a fuel + an oxidizer. For example, something called RP-1 and then liquid oxygen. These are combined together and then *ignited* and burned to create a big (controlled) explosion that moves the rocket! 🚀
— Emily Calandrelli (@TheSpaceGal) October 14, 2020
Minahil – NASA needs all types of people for their missions! Mostly scientists and engineers (so studying a STEM degree is a good idea!) but also IT people, human resources specialists, accountants, technicians, writers, etc! But remember you will probably need to be a US citizen
— Emily Calandrelli (@TheSpaceGal) October 14, 2020
Famous astronaut, Chris Hadfield, also answered the questions of students named Mahrukh and Rayyan. The NASA’s German counterpart, DLR, also took part in a fun activity and solved the queries of the students.
Mahrukh – I flew in the Space Shuttle twice. You feel violently shaken, squished, super-focused, excited and lucky. https://t.co/156xQxW3J3
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) October 14, 2020
The students had an informative activity through virtual interactions with famous scientists and astronauts from NASA, also highlighting the positive use of social media.