Neta grew up loving science from a young age. She always loved that science has fundamental questions for which very precise answers can be given. Why is the sky blue? Why did the Earth form the way it did? People can work out the theory or physics and test and retest it until they find the answer or still learn if the hypothesis was incorrect. 

 

Growing up in Israel, she didn't experience astronomy until she came to America because it wasn't a popular topic. She remembers talking to astrophysicists and being blown away by the questions they were asking. How did the universe form? How did galaxies form? And more. She began looking up at the sky and seeing everything in a very different way. She started understanding the stars and the implications of what she was seeing, such as how close they are and what’s in between the stars that we can’t see with our eyes. Are there other stars, planets? Are there other planets with life? How old is the universe? Is it expanding? She, like other astronomers, wanted to know the answers and began research to do so.

 

She was (and still is) fascinated that by using telescopes, computers, and our brains, we can figure out what’s in the universe beyond what we can see. She finds it fascinating that we can figure out these questions and that we understand everything that we do now. "There’s still things we don’t know, but the fact we can discover that they exist is amazing."

 

Science also introduced her to her husband, John.