Planetary Radio
Planetary Radio
Each week, Planetary Radio visits with a scientist, engineer, project manager, astronaut, advocate or writer who provides a unique and exciting perspective on the exploration of our solar system and beyond. We also showcase regular features that raise your space IQ while they put a smile on your face. Host Mat Kaplan is joined by Planetary Society colleagues Bill Nye the Science Guy, Bruce Betts, and Emily Lakdawalla. We hit the road now and then to produce a Planetary Radio Live show in front of an audience. Drop us a line or enter the weekly space trivia contest at planetaryradio@planetary.org.
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Recent Shows
Gregory and James Benford on the "Starship Century"
09/30/2013 | 28:50
Guests
- Gregory Benford, Physicist and Science Fiction Author, UC Irvine
- James Benford, Physicist and President of Microwave Sciences, Microwave Sciences
“Starship Century—Toward the Grandest Horizon” is the new collection of fact and fiction assembled by Gregory and James Benford. The brothers are among the leaders of a renaissance in research and thinking about interstellar travel. They have returned to Planetary Radio to talk about this story of human destiny among the stars.
PLANETARY RADIO LIVE: LADEE Launches for Luna
09/09/2013 | 28:50
Guests
- Bruce Betts, Director of Projects, The Planetary Society
- Brian Day, LADEE Education and Public Outreach Lead, Ames Research Center
- Bill Nye, Chief Executive Officer
- David Paige, Professor of Planetary Sciences, UCLA
Planetary Radio returned to the Crawford Family Forum for live coverage of the LADEE launch on September 6th.
08/05/2013 | 28:50
Guests
- Kat Scanlon, Graduate Student and Researcher, Brown University Geological Sciences
When she was learning to forecast the weather in Hawaii, Brown University grad student Kat Scanlon didn’t suspect it would help her uncover evidence for rain or, more likely, snow that helped shape the surface of Mars billions of years ago.
Tasting the Air of Distant Worlds
06/03/2013 | 31:50
Guests
- Ben R. Oppenheimer, Associate Curator/Astrophysics Department Chair, American Museum of Natural History, Division of Physical Sciences
There will soon be one thousand confirmed exoplanets, but how do we learn more about such distant worlds? We talk to the leader of a team that has recently developed technology capable of revealing the spectra of these planets, which allows us to tease apart their composition. Emily Lakdawalla invites you to find the next “face” on Mars, while Bill Nye says another asteroid flyby is good news. Our special What’s Up space trivia contest prize will put your picture in orbit!
Live at the Planetary Defense Conference!
04/22/2013 | 28:50
Guests
- Brent Barbee, Flight Dynamics Engineer, Goddard space Flight Center
- Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE Principal Investigator, Jet Propulsion Lab
- Bill Nye, Chief Executive Officer
- Cathy Plesko, Applied Physics Research Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory
- David Trilling, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University
Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan joined Bill Nye and four passionate planetary explorers on stage at the Planetary Defense Conference in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Amazing Science at the 2012 DPS Meeting
10/22/2012 | 28:50
Guests
- Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- Bill Borucki, Kepler Principal Investigator
- Heidi Hammel, Vice President of the Board of Directors, The Planetary Society
- William Hartmann, Planetary scientist, author, and artist
- Jim Bell, President of the Board of Directors, The Planetary Society
- Rosaly Lopes, Planetary Scientist and Leading Volcanologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The 44th Annual Meeting of the AAS Division of Planetary Sciences hosted hundreds of researchers and revealed volumes of scientific results. Join us at the conference.
Exploring the XDF, The Deepest Image of Our Universe, With Garth Illingworth
10/08/2012 | 28:50
Guests
- Garth Illingworth, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, UC Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz astronomer and XDF Principal Investigator Garth Illingworth takes us on a tour of this magnificent new image.
09/24/2012 | 37:42
Guests
- Bruce Betts, Director of Projects, The Planetary Society
- Steve Chesley, Astrodynamicist, JPL
We're live at the Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show, with JPL astrodynamicist Steve Chesley and Planetary Society Director of Projects Bruce Betts. Steve and Bruce reveal the exciting OSIRIS REx mission to an asteroid and then back to Earth with a precious soil sample. Enter the contest to name the asteroid! Bill Nye and Emily Lakdawalla check in, and one listener will win a Celestron FirstScope telescope.
More Planetary Radio Live at the Aquarium of the Pacific: Oceans Everywhere
07/30/2012 | 28:50
Guests
- Kevin Hand, Deputy Chief Scientist for Solar System Exploration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Bill Nye, Chief Executive Officer
- David Bader, Director of Education, Aquarium of the Pacific
We return to the Aquarium for much more of our conversation about seas on Earth and seas on other worlds, featuring Dave Bader, Kevin Hand and Bill Nye. Emily Lakdawalla concludes her video tour of Curiosity's cameras and instruments.
Big News All Around the Solar System From Emily Lakdawalla
03/26/2012 | 28:50
Guests
- Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist, The Planetary Society
- Bill Nye, Chief Executive Officer
The 2012 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference attracted many of the world's finest planetary scientists. This year it also attracted Emily Lakdawalla and Bill Nye the Planetary Guy. Emily provides a special report on amazing new discoveries about our solar system.
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