Activity Feed (Beta Version: 9.11.2.0)

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Science tattoos

I have a tattoo but it's of an ancient Irish word for home (as an immigrant, keeping connected to my roots is important to me). But I have a friend wh...

10/16/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Problem solving

That's a very interesting question and it depends on how you define "problem solving" really. In some ways, our entire job is problem solving - findin...

10/16/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Being a scientist

One of the things I struggle with as a scientist is that the work we do doesn't always have a direct impact on people. It definitely does in the long ...

10/16/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Have you ever been wrong?

Oh, absolutely! That is a key part of being a scientist. Granted, sometimes your ego might get a little bruised but the essence of science is to seek ...

10/16/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Advice to younger self?

That's a great question, and an important one. Here are some things I'd advise to my younger self: 1. Yes, you can do it. Don't let anyone tell you ...

10/16/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Funniest story

I was born and raised in Ireland but have lived in the US for 10 years now. I was in Salem Oregon for the 2017 total solar eclipse and I met a group f...

10/16/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Is the Sun perfectly round?

No the Sun is like a squat circle. Like if you sat on a beach ball and it squished out at the sides. We call this an oblate sphere. The oblateness on ...

3/23/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Does the sun make noise?

The Sun also rings like a giant bell, though not that we can hear it. Sound waves deep inside the Sun bounce around inside the star. We can measure th...

3/23/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Is it possible to land on the Sun?

I don't think so. The sun is made entirely of gas (called plasma) so there is no solid surface to land on. It is a bit like Saturn or Jupiter in that ...

3/23/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: is the sun solid?

Nope, the Sun is not solid. It is made up of a special gas called "plasma". It has no solid surface like the Earth so it has some pretty special quali...

3/23/2020

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Eclipses

Did you know that astrophysicists use just those types of transits to help them understand the characteristics of stars outside our solar system? Here...

10/24/2018

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Scientist parents?

I've seen it go both ways, where you have the child of scientists go on to be a great scientist themselves, but I've also seen the children of scienti...

10/24/2018

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Artistic scientists

I don't think I'd go so far as to call myself an artist, but I do love being creative. It's always exciting to find new and interesting ways to explai...

10/24/2018

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: recent eclipse

Hi there. I was lucky enough to see the total eclipse this year - it was my first one! Seeing a total eclipse is a completely different experience to ...

10/25/2017

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: CME

The nice thing about science is that it is accurate no matter how you apply it. Essentially, we use speed = distance/time to calculate the CME speed. ...

10/23/2017

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Eclipse August on 21st

I saw the eclipse from Salem in Oregon. It was my first total eclipse and it gave me shivers up my spine! It was other worldly and the light from it w...

10/23/2017

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Comet hitting the Sun

Hi there. Comets hit the Sun all the time, but since even the big ones are teeny tiny compared to the enormous Sun, they tend to just burn up/melt as ...

10/23/2017

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Color of the ancient Sun

The Sun has evolved over millions of years, like any star so yes, it would have been a different size and color a few billion years ago. This is a ver...

10/23/2017

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: Who inspired you?

Hi Heather. I had a number of role models along the way, although not really any idols. More, I had people who inspired me to believe in myself and fo...

10/23/2017

Claire Rafteryreplied to: RE: career

Thats a great question. Its one that can be answered in many ways. As Christina, Kris and Laurel said, there are lots of institutions across the natio...

3/31/2017