Amy Mainzer and a New Asteroid-Hunting Space Telescope
We may finally get the powerful telescope we’ve needed to find almost all of the near-Earth objects that are big enough to destroy a city. University of Arizona professor Amy Mainzer leads the NEO Surveyor project. She returns to Planetary Radio with the full story. Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos and three colleagues rode a rocket that briefly put them in space. We’ll hear from Bezos and 82-year-old Wally Funk. The pilot and former astronaut candidate is now the oldest person to have reached space. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/amy-mainzer-neo-surveyorSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
21 Juli 202149min
We’re Going Back to Venus
Sue Smrekar and Jim Garvin woke up in June to some of the best news a planetary scientist can receive. Their complementary missions to Venus had just been given the green light by NASA. The VERITAS and DAVINCI principal investigators return to Planetary Radio for a celebration of this announcement and a deep dive into their spacecraft and the mysteries of Earth’s broiling-hot sister world. Bruce Betts adds yet another Venusian mystery when he offers this week’s What’s Up space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/sue-smrekar-veritas-jim-garvin-davinciSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
14 Juli 20211h 2min
Visiting the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is expected to be 100 times as powerful as its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. We talk with three leaders of the effort to build, launch and deploy it as soon as November of this year. These conversations were recorded on the other side of a window facing the Northrop Grumman clean room in which technicians were putting the finishing touches on the observatory. Bruce Betts salutes Webb with a special What’s Up Random Space Fact. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/jwst-vila-ochs-robinsonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
7 Juli 20211h 18min
Space Policy Edition: The Pentagon's UFO Report, Featuring Sarah Scoles
The Pentagon finally released its hotly-anticipated briefing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. As expected, it provided little new information, saying only that there were a number of unexplainable observations. Sarah Scoles, author of the book They Are Already Here, that examines the culture and motivations behind ufology, joins the show to provide critical context. Why did it come about? What are the motivations of the people who pushed for its release? And how should we approach extraordinary claims with little information? Discover more here: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/0702-2021-spe-sarah-scoles-pentagon-ufo-reportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2 Juli 20211h 18min
Finding Life by Looking for Complexity
University of Glasgow chemist Lee Cronin and his collaborators have developed a new way to detect life. Their "assembly theory" could give us a reliable method for recognizing life or evidence of past life based on the complexity of molecules in any environment. The Planetary Society’s Rae Paoletta shares our favorite images of Saturn’s rings with Mat. Bruce Betts reveals which star takes up more of Earth’s night sky as he resolves another What’s Up space quiz. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/lee-cronin-assembly-theorySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
30 Juni 202156min
The Pearly Clouds of Mars
Want to see wild colors on Mars? Look up! Planetary scientist Mark Lemmon studies planetary atmospheres at the Space Science Institute. He marvels at the images taken by Mastcam on the Curiosity rover of shimmering iridescent clouds high above the Martian surface. The Planetary Society’s Kate Howells looks back at the 1998 blockbuster movies that got a lot more people thinking about the near-Earth object threat. A few clouds won’t keep Bruce Betts from sharing his latest What’s Up look at the night sky. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/mark-lemmon-mars-clouds-and-dustSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
23 Juni 202152min
Amateur Astronomers Saving the World
The Planetary Society has awarded more than 60 Shoemaker near-Earth object grants to astronomers around the world, enabling them to discover, track, and characterize thousands of asteroids. We’ll hear from two of these dedicated observers. The Society’s Rae Paoletta takes us to Venus where three new spacecraft will help answer big questions. Senior space policy adviser Casey Dreier helps us think about UFO claims. Chief scientist Bruce Betts offers a new What’s Up space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/shoemaker-neo-awardees-venus missionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
16 Juni 20211h 5min
Experimental Cosmologist Brian Keating
How did the universe begin? Why do galaxies look the way the do? Can we see the vanishingly dim light of undiscovered worlds in the Kuiper Belt? These are some of the questions that drive Simons Observatory director Brian Keating. He also thinks deeply about the existential challenges faced by young scientists and how the Nobel Prize for Physics should be reformed. We’ll spend a fascinating hour with Brian after we visit his lab with fellow physicists James Benford and Paul Davies. Planetary Society chief scientist Bruce Betts joins us for an up-front What’s Up segment. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/brian-keating-simons-observatory-cosmology-nobelSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
9 Juni 20211h 34min
