1
00:00:00,001 --> 00:00:09,280
[ MUSIC ]

2
00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:14,320
I would say, as a child, I was always interested 
in all things kind of science-related. I liked  

3
00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:20,880
rocks, I liked dinosaurs, I liked planets. But my 
pivotal moments, I think I had two of them, and  

4
00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,680
the first was the space shuttle program and, Sally 
Ride, and the fact that, you know, she was the first  

5
00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:32,240
American woman in space, and I really wanted to 
do that. But the second was the Voyager flybys.  

6
00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:38,240
And while I don't really have memories of 
the Jupiter flyby, I distinctly remember  

7
00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:42,000
the Uranus flyby in 1986.

8
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,737
[ MUSIC ]

9
00:00:45,737 --> 00:00:49,641
And getting these images of 
these alien worlds, these funny moons,

10
00:00:49,641 --> 00:00:53,360
that, you know, all different colors, all sorts of things 
going on there that we didn't understand.

11
00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,719
And really that cemented, for me, I wanted 
to study space science.

12
00:00:56,719 --> 00:00:59,943
There was no other question that's what I was going to do.

13
00:00:59,944 --> 00:01:12,194
[ MUSIC ]

14
00:01:12,194 --> 00:01:19,206
So as a planetary scientist, I study the planets in our solar system, primarily the outer planets, and I'm 

15
00:01:19,206 --> 00:01:23,315
interested in their atmospheres, and how they work, and what they can teach us as 

16
00:01:23,315 --> 00:01:27,128
a laboratory for 
atmospheres all over the place, including the Earth.

17
00:01:27,128 --> 00:01:32,560
[ MUSIC ]

18
00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:40,320
My background is a little interesting. I 
actually originally wanted to study Mars geology.  

19
00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:45,680
But when I started my graduate school career, 
I had an opportunity to work on Jupiter data,  

20
00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:49,920
particularly with Hubble, calibrating 
some of the early images before Hubble  

21
00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:56,080
had its corrective optics, right before the 
Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impacts into Jupiter.  

22
00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:00,400
And then we had this great encounter, where we had 
all these cometary pieces hitting it. But it was  

23
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:06,240
a new camera on Hubble, after the corrective optics, 
so you know, "Wow, all these great new images!" And I  

24
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:12,540
kind of got sold into, "This is really what I want 
to do, study the atmospheres of planets."

25
00:02:12,540 --> 00:02:17,440
"Hubble Space Telescope's been looking at Jupiter for the 
past 25 years, and this particular image taken just  

26
00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:22,560
a few days ago, we can see the dynamic cloud bands, 
all the swirling clouds and colors on Jupiter, of  

27
00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:27,840
course, and the Great Red Spot, but we also see wave 
features, and smaller storms in the atmosphere so  

28
00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:33,627
we're learning a lot about Jupiter's weather, 
basically, by doing these Hubble observations."

29
00:02:33,627 --> 00:02:39,118
"In addition to her work with the Hubble Space Telescope, Dr. Simon has also worked on..."

30
00:02:39,118 --> 00:02:45,000
"The Cassini Mission to Saturn // Composite Infrared Spectrometer"

31
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,313
"Landsat 9 Earth Observation Satellite // Thermal Infrared Sensor"

32
00:02:50,313 --> 00:02:55,167
"OSIRIS-REx Mission to Asteroid Bennu // Near-Infrared Spectrometer"

33
00:02:55,167 --> 00:02:59,120
"Lucy Mission to the Trojan Asteroids // L'Ralph Visible Camera and Near-Infrared Spectrometer"

34
00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:04,000
I would say, I'm not really good at looking towards 
the future of envisioning exactly where I'll be in  

35
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:09,120
10 years, but, you know, I want to see more missions 
to the outer solar system, I think we have a lot  

36
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:14,400
left to do out there. And I am looking forward 
to the day when we are ready to launch a mission  

37
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:22,572
to Neptune, or even another mission to Saturn, and 
I certainly hope to be part of those missions.

38
00:03:22,572 --> 00:03:30,585
[ SILENCE ]