Meet the first STEP Grant awardees
Citizen scientists will soon have another opportunity to become part of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and an innovative project will use a subtle effect of sunlight to learn about near-Earth objects. These are the projects funded in the first round of The Planetary Society’s Science and Technology Empowered by the Public (STEP) grant program. We’ll meet the awardees after Society chief scientist Bruce Betts provides an overview. Bruce returns for this week’s What’s Up and the space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-first-step-grant-awardeesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
16 Mars 20221h 1min
Water, water everywhere with Bethany Ehlmann
Planetary scientist Bethany Ehlmann has co-authored a paper presenting evidence that liquid surface water flowed on Mars as much as a billion years more recently than previously thought. That’s an extra billion years for possible life to have formed and thrived. We’ll also join Planetary Society editor Rae Paoletta as she explores water worlds throughout our solar system in a new article. Another great prize awaits the winner of the What’s Up space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-bethany-ehlmann-mars-waterSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
9 Mars 202248min
Space Policy Edition: Why are outer planets missions so expensive?
It's the 50th anniversary of Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to the outer planets. Pioneers 10 and 11 were scrappy, low-cost endeavors that blazed the path for future exploration. But the future has been expensive: outer planets missions are some of the priciest planetary probes in history. Can we get back to a pioneering spirit and increase the frequency of outer planet exploration? To find out, we talk with Mark Wolverton, author of “The Depths of Space: The Story of the Pioneer Probes,” and Scott Bolton, principal investigator for Juno, the most affordable Jupiter mission in decades. Casey and Mat also discuss the dynamic and tragic situation in Ukraine, and its implications for space. Discover more here: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/pioneer-10-and-11-bolton-wolvertonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
4 Mars 20221h 27min
5,000 worlds and counting: the success of TESS
Michelle Kunimoto was one of Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in science. Now she leads the most successful search for exoplanets that relies on data delivered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or TESS. She shares this fast-growing catalog of worlds in her first Planetary Radio conversation. Bruce Betts and Mat Kaplan also kick off a new series of great prizes in the What’s Up space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-michelle-kunimoto-tessSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2 Mars 202248min
Astrobiologist David Grinspoon on life, the universe and everything
Astrobiologist, planetary scientist, author and science communicator David Grinspoon has just been named a lifetime fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He returns to Planetary Radio for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of our search for life across the solar system and beyond. We also learn what it was like to grow up in a home visited regularly by Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov. Plus, get out your pencils and calculators! Bruce Betts delivers another cosmic arithmetic challenge in the space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-david-grinspoonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
23 Feb 20221h 4min
Saving the world one telescope at a time: The Shoemaker NEO grant winne
The Planetary Society has awarded another eight Gene Shoemaker near-Earth object grants to outstanding amateur astronomers and observatories around the world. We’ll meet recipients from Chile, Croatia and the United States after chief scientist Bruce Betts tells us about the program. Bruce will then return with Mat Kaplan for yet another What’s Up tour of the sky and a new space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-shoemaker-neo-awardsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
16 Feb 202256min
The weather on brown dwarfs, and worlds on the eve of destruction
Astrophysicists Sam Grunblatt and Johanna Vos are colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Sam’s team has discovered giant worlds that are about to be devoured by their expanding stars, while Johanna has detected weather on brown dwarfs, those plentiful worlds that are bigger than planets but smaller than stars. Later, Bruce Betts takes the Olympics beyond the edge of our solar system with this week’s space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-grunblatt-vos-brown-dwarfs-giant-worlds-near-endSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
9 Feb 202251min
Space Policy Edition: JWST and the politics of mega-science (with Robert Smith)
Robert Smith shares the story of how the astronomical community decided upon the JWST as the follow-up to the Hubble Space Telescope, the coalition politics required for mega-projects like Hubble and JWST, and how that dynamic shapes modern science. Dr. Smith holds a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. He is a professor at the University of Alberta. His book, The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA, Science, Technology, and Politics, was released in 1989. Discover more here: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/robert-smith-jwst-big-scienceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
4 Feb 20221h 20min
