Interview with Dr. Kevin H. Baines
Q. When did you know you wanted to be planetary scientist?
A. When I was about seven years. While I was sick in bed with the
measles, the news came on our black and white T.V that a monkey was about to
be launched in to space as our first space explorer. I decided right then that
I wanted to join him someday, studying space and
the places that could be visited there - like the planets.
Q. Where did you go to school - what kinds of subjects do scientist
like you study in college?
A. I first went to a small but rigorous college in New England, known
as Amherst College. Then, to learn more about space and astronomy, I went
to graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri,
where I received a Doctorate in Physics. In college, I studied all kinds of
subjects. The most important for my career were mathematics,
physics, and astronomy. On the side, I learned several computer languages,
which is very important to know in order to write computer programs
to analyze the data we get from telescopes and spacecraft.
Q. Where do you work today? What is your job-what are your job
responsibilities?
A. I work for NASA and the California Institute of Technology at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. There, I have alot of
fun working on many different kinds of space projects. During the past
several years, I spent quite a bit of time getting the Galileo spacecraft
ready to take pictures of Jupiter. Recently, I have spent more time
analyzing those pictures. One intriguing feature on Jupiter is what is known
as the Great Red Spot. This is a really colossal hurricane, wider than three
Earths. In examining the pictures we've taken from Galileo, I have been able
to determine the three-dimensional structure of this huge storm. It is
actually shaped like a spiral, something we didn't know before.
I am also involved with the Cassini mission to Saturn and its moon Titan.
I had a fun time last October watching the launch with my scientist friends
and colleagues at Cape Canaveral. The rocket lifted off at night, and we
could feel the heat of it from our position more than ten miles away! It'll
be fun when we get there in 2004 to finally find out what lies under the
clouds of Titan, using the probe we've sent. This probe will take pictures
of the surface of Titan, and might land in a slushy goo of liquid ethane at
about -300 degrees Farenheit!
One other thing I do is observe the planets with telescopes from some
of the largets observatories on Earth. It is really neat watching storms on
Neptune - right now the farthest planet in our Solar System - while sipping
hot chocolate in the viewing room of an observatory at the top of the
highest mountain in Hawaii.
Q. What is the most exciting scientific program you've ever been
involved with.
A. Some years ago I was surprised to find myself involved with solving the
mystery of what killed the dinosaurs. Some geologist friends and I were able
to show that they actually froze to death due to the extreme cooling of the
earth brought about by sulfuric acid clouds produced by the impact of a large
asteroid with sulfur-laden ground rock. The sulfuric clouds reflected back
into space much of the sunlight which normally
warms the Earth, thus cooling the Earth down. The cloud actually encircled the
globe, thus causing a worldwide cooling that lasted for 15 years or more. To
the dinosaurs, it was an endless winter that they couldn't weather.
This was quite a revelation and exciting since almost everyone is interested
in what caused the demise of the most successful reign of large creatures that
the world has ever known, thus causing the right conditions for
the rise of mammals and eventually mankind.
Q. What programs do you hope to be involved with in the future?
A. I am continuing to be involved with the Galileo mission to Jupiter and
the Cassini mission to Saturn and Titan. However, one of the more
exciting things I am personally doing is developing my own mission to
Venus. This mission will look for volcanoes on the surface while trying
to understand the nature of Venus' hot and thick atmosphere. In
particular, we will will try to understand why hurricane-force winds
exist almost everywhere on Venus.
Q. Why should kids consider a career in planetary science?
A. Because you can have incredible fun while getting paid for it!
Also because you are contributing to the knowledge of mankind, and
may actually be a part of lasting history as new discoveries are made
with you as part of the team that makes them!
Thank you Dr. Baines for letting your son, Christopher, interview you for our ThinkQuest project.
March 23, 1998