See other posts from April 2013

An Amazing Evening for Planetary Defense

Join us via Planetary Radio and complete video coverage.

Posted By Mat Kaplan

2013/04/23 07:12 CDT

Topics: explaining science, podcasts and videos, personal stories, fun, interview, Planetary Society, Planetary Society People, Bill Nye, Planetary Radio, Planetary Society Video, planetary defense and Mirror Bees, Shoemaker NEO Grants, asteroids, comets, Earth impact hazard, meteorites, meteors, near-Earth asteroids, WISE, impact cratering

What a night!  Bill Nye, Bruce Betts, Meteorite Man Geoffrey Notkin, stars of planetary science and yours truly were on the stage at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.  In the audience were more than 900 throughly jazzed fans of science.  It was exciting, entertaining, informative, and even inspiring. The public event was presented as part of the biannual Planetary Defense Conference. 

You'll hear excerpts of a panel discussion that included Bill on this week's Planetary Radio.  The show also includes a live version of What's Up! with Bruce Betts.  The Planetary Society video camera was there to capture the entire evening, including Bill's solo presentation, and a great slide show from Geoffrey Notkin, co-star of "Meteorite Men" on the Science Channel.  Bruce Betts announces the latest winners of Shoemaker NEO grants from the Society, and talk about how this program has helped amateur and other astronomers to make astounding observations and discoveries of Near Earth Objects.  (Bruce writes about the awardees here.)

Planetary Radio coverage of the PDC will continue next week with astronauts Ed Lu and Rusty Schweikart, astronomer and comet discoverer Carolyn Shoemaker, and a dramatic simulation of how scientists and others may respond when that big rock with our name on it is discovered.