Artemis II’s AVATAR and a sungrazing comet

Artemis II’s AVATAR and a sungrazing comet

Artemis II is the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17, and riding alongside the crew is one of the most ambitious biology experiments ever sent to space. It's called AVATAR, short for A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response: tiny organ chips grown from the astronauts' own cells, flying the same trajectory around the Moon, exposed to the same deep-space radiation and microgravity as the crew themselves. Lisa Carnell, director of NASA's Biological and Physical Sciences Division, explains what this experiment could mean for the future of human exploration.

Then, Alain Maury, asteroid hunter and Planetary Society Shoemaker Near-Earth Object grant recipient, tells the story of how his MAPS survey in Chile's Atacama Desert spotted a faint, fuzzy object that turned out to be something extraordinary. C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is a sungrazing comet now falling toward the Sun on a path that will bring it within 162,000 kilometers (100,000 miles) of the solar surface on April 4th. If it survives that encounter, it could become one of the most spectacular comets in decades.

And finally, Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts joins us for What's Up, including how to spot the comet yourself, if it makes it through.

Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-avatar-and-sungrazer

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Episoder(1325)

The astronaut health experiments of Artemis II

The astronaut health experiments of Artemis II

Artemis II is about more than getting four humans to the Moon and back. It's an opportunity to gather data on human health in deep space that we haven’t had in over 50 years. This week, we’re joined b...

25 Mar 1h 3min

Book Club Edition: The Giant Leap: Why Space is the Next Frontier in the Evolution of Life

Book Club Edition: The Giant Leap: Why Space is the Next Frontier in the Evolution of Life

Join us for an awe-inspiring conversation with astrobiologist and astronomer Caleb Scharf as he eloquently makes the case for "dispersal," the nearly inevitable advance of life and humanity across our...

20 Mar 1h 17min

The 18th European Space Conference: Dreaming of European boots on the Moon

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Humanity is going back to the Moon, and Europe is already playing a critical role in making it happen. This week, Planetary Radio brings you voices straight from the 18th European Space Conference in ...

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Starman: Looking back on a life exploring the Solar System

Starman: Looking back on a life exploring the Solar System

Gentry Lee spent nearly five decades at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and in that time he helped shape some of the most ambitious missions in the history of space exploration. A new documentary, “...

11 Mar 1h 1min

Space Policy Edition: Is there really a space race between the US and China?

Space Policy Edition: Is there really a space race between the US and China?

Is the United States really in a new space race with China? Or is that framing missing the bigger picture? In this Space Policy Edition of Planetary Radio, Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The P...

6 Mar 1h 8min

Artemis update: NASA reshapes the road back to the Moon

Artemis update: NASA reshapes the road back to the Moon

NASA has announced a major restructuring of the Artemis program, reshaping the roadmap for returning humans to the Moon. At a February 27 press conference, agency leadership addressed the rollback of ...

4 Mar 58min

Did an impact trigger cryovolcanism on Umbriel?

Did an impact trigger cryovolcanism on Umbriel?

Could a single ancient impact have briefly transformed one of the Solar System’s darkest moons into a cryovolcanic world? When Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 1986, it captured the only close-up images ...

25 Feb 59min

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