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We really have only been observing Neptune with big telescopes since shortly before 1989.
Heidi Hammel -
Even after years of observing, a new picture of Uranus from Keck Observatory can stop me in my tracks and make me say, 'Wow!'
Heidi Hammel
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When Hubble was launched, it became clear very shortly thereafter that there was a problem with the optics.The mirror was not quite the right shape. And the one program that I had really been looking forward to doing with Hubble was studying outer planets in our solar system, the planets Uranus and Neptune.
Heidi Hammel -
We've explored every type of environment in the solar system at least once.
Heidi Hammel -
When I first heard that a comet was going to hit Jupiter, my reaction was, 'Eh. So what? Jupiter's huge. Comets are small. And so when I saw the first impact site and it was huge and dark, I was flabbergasted.
Heidi Hammel -
Because Hubble's been up so many years now, it's actually given us a window to things like... how planets' atmospheres actually change, evolve... over time.
Heidi Hammel -
If there were creatures on Uranus - and I don't think there are - seasonal affective disorder would be a lifetime thing.
Heidi Hammel -
I think the only way that the U.S. human spaceflight program is going to get really revitalized, really put sort of an Apollo level push on it, is if some other country, perhaps China, were to actually have a landed flight to the moon and brought back our American flag and put it in Tiananmen Square.
Heidi Hammel
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No one planet can tell us everything about the universe, but Neptune seems to hold more than its share of information about the formation of our own solar system - as well as the solar systems beyond.
Heidi Hammel -
I think all scientists are like detectives. We are most happy when we find something that doesn't fit our expectations.
Heidi Hammel -
It's clear that the only thing that is inhibiting us from doing further human exploration of space is money and the will to do it.
Heidi Hammel -
Webb will return extremely interesting measurements of chemistry in the Martian atmosphere. And most importantly, these Mars data will be immediately available to the planetary community to enable them to plan even more detailed Mars observations with Webb in future cycles.
Heidi Hammel -
Together, NASA and Hubble are opening new vistas on the universe.
Heidi Hammel -
The Hubble program has been so fantastically successful. It's more than what anyone expected.
Heidi Hammel
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Having the young people engaged, involved, and being the leaders themselves is a great way to capture them intellectually and emotionally.
Heidi Hammel -
I feel like an old-fashioned mountain climber when I am making discoveries, seeing something for the first time, realizing that no human before me has ever seen what I am seeing. It takes your breath away - for just a moment, you feel a pause in time, as you know you are crossing a boundary into a new realm of knowledge.
Heidi Hammel -
The thing about telescopes is that the mirror is the main component. Once that's built, you don't need to build new ones; you just need to swap out the instruments. There's nothing wrong with Hubble's mirror.
Heidi Hammel -
Neptune's unusual behavior is showing us that though we can make great models of planetary atmospheric circulation, there may be key pieces missing.
Heidi Hammel -
Every observation that we make, every mission that we send to various places in the solar system is just taking us one step further to finding that truly habitable environment, a water-rich environment.
Heidi Hammel -
Because exploration is not science driven, you've got to ask what is it driven by? And it's driven by politics.
Heidi Hammel
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We need to know math to be a good scientist, but math is a language, and we need to learn the language because that's the language of science.
Heidi Hammel -
We thought of Uranus's atmosphere as pretty much dead. And it's not.
Heidi Hammel -
Having high quality daycare is by far the most important thing you can do when your kids are little. When I relocated, I spent more time looking for daycare than I did looking for a house.
Heidi Hammel -
I would say the biggest challenge I had as a woman in science is be a mom. It's really hard. It's very hard work having children, and I tell kids this all the time.
Heidi Hammel