Rank #1: Zibi Turtle and a Mission to the Ice Giants
They are the most neglected planets in our solar system, but that status may be changing. Planetary scientist Elizabeth “Zibi” Turtle celebrates NASA’s announcement that it will study a mission to Uranus or Neptune.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 22 2015
28mins
Play
Rank #2: Getting Humans to Mars Without Breaking the Bank
NASA scientist Harley Thronson tells us about a new initiative that is figuring out how we will get men and women to the red planet at a reasonable price. You can read their initial report. Emily Lakdawalla reports on Curiosity’s passage over dunes that made engineers nervous. Bill Nye reveals NASA’s plans for a lunar rover that may launch in 2018. Mat Kaplan joins Bruce Betts in a TV studio to record this week’s What’s Up segment. You can watch!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 18 2014
28mins
Play
Rank #3: From Earth to the Edge of the Universe: A New Edition of “The Cosmos”
Astronomers Jay Pasachoff and Alex Filippenko join us for a conversation about their newest version of their monumental textbook, "The Cosmos." Emily Lakdawalla helps us say good morning to the just-awakened Rosetta spacecraft, while Bill Nye is fascinated and puzzled by what looks like a jelly doughnut on the Martian surface.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 21 2014
30mins
Play
Rank #4: Civilizations Among the Clustered Stars?
New research indicates that globular clusters—collections of up to a million stars—could provide stable environments for life, along with opportunities for interstellar civilizations. Lead author Rosanne Di Stefano joins us to explain.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 26 2016
41mins
Play
Rank #5: Dr. J and the World’s Biggest Telescope
Joe Liske, host of Hubblecast, is also the top scientist on the European Southern Observatory’s European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), now under construction on a Chilean mountaintop. “Dr. J” tells us what this largest ever telescope will help us discover.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 13 2015
36mins
Play
Rank #6: Sean Solomon on the Climactic End of the MESSENGER Mission to Mercury
We open with the countdown to destruction—the MESSENGER spacecraft’s impact on Mercury ended its spectacularly successful mission. Principal Investigator Sean Solomon joins us immediately after this big finish.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 05 2015
28mins
Play
Rank #7: Chris Carberry and Getting Humans to Mars
Explore Mars revealed the 2015 Humans to Mars Report at a recent conference in Washington. CEO Chris Carberry gives us a quick tour of this inspiring assessment of what it will take to get more than robots to the Red Planet.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 02 2015
28mins
Play
Rank #8: Our Mysterious Sister: Venus
Astrophysicist Javier Peralta takes us deep into the thick, fast-moving clouds of the world that is still called Earth's sister by some. Venus is slow to reveal its secrets. Jason Davis helps us celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 12. The Planetary Society wants to hear your space goals, accomplishments and dreams! And Bruce Betts reveals the identity of the first gourmet in space. Space headlines from The Downlink, too. Learn more about this week’s guest and topics at: https://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2019/1106-2019-javier-peralta.html
Nov 06 2019
49mins
Play
Rank #9: Space, SETI, the Singularity and Shostak
Where is everybody? That was the question physicist Enrico Fermi asked when he wondered why we hadn’t yet met ET. What will happen if we do? Will humans lose the will to explore?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 07 2018
59mins
Play
Rank #10: The Royal Observatory, Greenwich and the Quest for Longitude
Come with us on a visit to the home of the prime meridian for a conversation with the curator of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich about the race to create a practical means for determining longitude.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 28 2015
43mins
Play
Rank #11: Visiting the Earth-Like Worlds of TRAPPIST-1
We have begun to understand the composition of worlds that are hundreds of trillions of kilometers from Earth. Astronomer Nikole Lewis is co-leader of a team that has used the Hubble Space Telescope to do this with the four Earth-like planets circling a star called TRAPPIST-1. Host Mat Kaplan talks with Digital Editor Jason Davis about a new probe designed to discover thousands of additional exoplanets. Want to win a Planetary Radio t-shirt? Answer this week’s space trivia question posed by Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts. Learn more about this week’s topics and see images here: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2018/0411-nikole-lewis-trappist-worlds.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 11 2018
31mins
Play
Rank #12: Planet 9 From Outer Space!
Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin fully expect a new and undemotable ninth planet will be found in the outer reaches of the solar system. The Caltech researchers talk about their findings and much more.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 09 2016
49mins
Play
Rank #13: A Small, Distant World: Kepler 138b
SETI Institute scientist Jason Rowe returns to tell us about the smallest exoplanet so far that has had its size and mass determined. Jason also talks with Mat about our ever-expanding knowledge of these worlds that circle faraway stars.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 14 2015
28mins
Play
Rank #14: Spiraling Closer to Ceres With the Dawn Mission’s Marc Rayman
It’s the biggest dwarf planet between here and Pluto, and it has a new permanent resident. The Dawn spacecraft is orbiting Ceres in the asteroid belt, revealing it as never before. What are those bright spots anyway? We spend time with Dawn’s Chief Engineer and Director, Marc Rayman.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 19 2015
33mins
Play
Rank #15: Microbes in Orbit: Cheryl Nickerson’s Revealing Biomedical Research
You may have heard that the sometimes deadly Salmonella bacterium becomes stronger in microgravity. Cheryl Nickerson tell us about this and other results her team has conducted in low Earth orbit.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 08 2014
42mins
Play
Rank #16: Jim Bell Welcomes “The Interstellar Age”
Planetary scientist and author Jim Bell has just written “The Interstellar Age—Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission.” He talks with Mat Kaplan about the magnificent grand tour of the outer solar system that is now headed toward the stars.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 03 2015
46mins
Play
Rank #17: Where Do We Come From? The Origin of Life
Astrobiology is the discipline that explores the origin of life in the universe, and whether life exists anywhere other than Earth. It’s an increasingly exciting field according to University of Washington Research Associate Michael Wong. Mike reviews the current thinking and provides some of the chemical basis for life as we know it, and possibly as we don’t know it. Planetary Society Senior Editor Emily Lakdawalla explains why we don’t see stars in many images of bodies across the solar system, while Society CEO Bill Nye marks the end of the US government shutdown that has hampered so much science. Five more winners will receive copies of First Man in this week’s What’s Up space trivia contest. Learn more at: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2019/0130-2019-michael-wong-life-origin.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 30 2019
54mins
Play
Rank #18: 2014: The Year in Space
Our annual review of the greatest events and accomplishments over the last year features analysis and commentary by Bill Nye the Science Guy, Emily Lakdawalla, Jason Davis, Casey Dreier and Bruce Betts, along with a special new year’s gift of Neil deGrasse Tyson.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 30 2014
28mins
Play
Rank #19: Back to Saturn for Brand New Cassini Science
Our most frequent guest returns with exciting, just-published research enabled by the 20-year mission’s enormous success. Linda Spilker has served as Cassini Project Scientist for 8 years, and was Deputy Project Scientist for the previous 13. You’ll also get the chance to win Bruce Betts’ great new intro to astronomy book in this week’s space trivia contest. Learn more at: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2018/1017-2018-linda-spilker-cassini-science.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 17 2018
36mins
Play
Rank #20: Dawn: Ten Years of Exploration
Dawn Mission Director and Chief Engineer Marc Rayman helps us salute the ion-engine powered spacecraft that first orbited asteroid Vesta in the main asteroid belt and then moved to dwarf planet Ceres, revealing two fascinating worlds.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 11 2017
59mins
Play