Who Me? I'm an Astronomer now!
Extra Resources
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Keivan Stassun’s mother thought that making sure her son received a better education than she was able to get was so important?
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2. What school subjects do you think are most important for someone who wants to become an astronaut or an astronomer?
3. Rather than saying “gravity pulls me down,” what words would you use to better explain the direction toward which gravity pulls you when you are standing on the surface of the Earth?
4. Why do you think astronomers are interested in discovering and learning about exoplanets?
5. If you could travel on a rocket to a star located only one light year from the Earth and Sun, how long do you think the trip would take? How long would a rocket trip take to go to the Moon? To Mars?
Extra Learning tools
You can learn more about the TESS mission at: https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transitingexoplanet-survey-satellite.
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You can learn about other NASA missions at: https://www.nasa.gov/missions.
You can learn more about Keivan Stassun’s career and research projects at: http://my.vanderbilt.edu/kstassun/.
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You can learn about Keivan Stassun’s work on helping young people with autism become scientists at: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/autismandinnovation/.