A teacher from Karachi, Aimun Faisal on Wednesday posted her students’ questions to NASA on Twitter and her post went viral after scientists and astronauts responded to the queries. It all began with a class activity where the fourth grade teacher at Karachi’s Cornerstones School asked her students to write down questions about the solar system.
On Wednesday, Faisal posted six selected questions and the names and photos of the students who had asked them on Twitter.
“These fourth graders have some questions for you,” said the post, in which NASA astronauts and other scientists were tagged. The tweet went viral.
To Faisal’s surprise and joy, astronauts and scientists replied.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield said to a student called Rayyan who had asked if he ever felt “scared” his space ship would get lost in space:
“Rayyan – I wasn’t scared we’d get lost. We had the Earth nearby, and used the stars to steer. I felt especially comforted when I flew over home. Here’s a photo I took of Karachi – can you find your school?”
To Haniyah, who asked if it was true that it rained diamonds on Jupiter, Emily Calandrelli, an American science communicator and the host of Xploration Outer Space and Emily’s Wonder Lab, wrote:
“Haniyah -It’s definitely possible!! The same physics and chemistry that creates diamonds here on Earth (putting Carbon under super high heat/pressure) exists on planets like Jupiter, so some scientists hypothesize that it’s raining diamonds there! Wouldn’t it be fun to see that?!”
There were several other replies, which Faisal collected, printed out and put into envelopes that she took to class the next day, Thursday. There was a “stunned silence,” she said, when she told the students scientists had replied to their queries.
The students, who had low expectations about getting responses to their queries, Faisal said, were “currently planning a ‘field trip’ to NASA.”
Source: Arab News PK
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