February 22, 2017

Today was a very exciting day in the world of math and science, and we were there to catch it! At 10 AM we watched the live press conference from NASA where they announced the discovery of 7 rocky planets (3 of which are in the "Goldilocks Zone" of habitability) orbiting a sun in the Aquarius constellation 40 light years away. You can catch a replay of the news conference here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/100200725.

During the news conference, students wrote down questions and handed them to Ms. Alyx who live tweeted the questions using the hashtag #askNASA. Check out our twitter handle at https://twitter.com/MCHTurquesa to see the questions we posted.

Afterwards, the scientist at the JPL at NASA did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit where we posted a few questions. Ms. Alyx asked what kids of Turquesa's generation can do for space and this was their reply:

NASAJPL- It's an exciting time to be a kid, and to be an explorer! If students out there are interested in joining us here at NASA, taking as much math as possible is always good. That said, it's also important to study language arts, too, so that you can communicate your discoveries and innovations. In the meantime, check out the exoplanet travel posters for inspiration about worlds we might someday visit: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau/ -- Stephanie

and

NASAJPL- There are potential future NASA telescopes currently under consideration that may be able to search for signs of life on Earthlike exoplanets. These missions may launch in the 2030s, so we'll need the next generation of scientists to study the data we collect from them! Two of these concepts are called LUVOIR (https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/luvoir/) and HabEx (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/habex/). Maybe someday you could work on one of these missions, or a similar one! -G.A.

You can also learn more about the new solar system here: www.trappist.one

The kids were enthralled and so fascinated with everything. Playing around with NASA's Eye app you download on your computer is a great way to expand the learning at home. With their "Eye on Exoplanets" app, you can learn more about the Trappist system!

​Ms. Nicole & Ms. Alyx