Girl Scouts learn about solar wind

Girl Scouts in northeast Iowa are hearing words of inspiration from a top researcher at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Dr. Eileen Stansbery is interim director of the Office of Astro-materials Research and Exploration Science. Stansbery is working on the Genesis Mission, which is measuring the “solar wind” of our sun.She says the space probe is going to gather atoms and ions of the solar wind from all elements in the periodic table, from lithium to uranium.Stansbery says the elements will tell us the chemical composition of the sun and a starting point for what our solar system was originally made from. She also talked with the Girl Scouts about plans for sending humans to other planets. Stansbery says girls need to know they can follow their dreams and she urges them to pursue careers in science and engineering.Stansbery talked recently at the Little Cloud Girl Scout Camp in Dubuque County. The first Iowa woman in space, astronaut Peggy Whitson of Mount Ayr, is currently on a mission aboard the International Space Station that’ll keep her in orbit several more months.