Program Archives

CHECKING THE WEATHER ON URANUS BY RADIO TELESCOPE
October 23, 2006
Guests: Mark Hofstadter
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Planetary Radio returns to Uranus with radio astronomer and planetary scientist Mark Hofstadter of the Jet Propulsion Lab. The big blue globe is his favorite planet, though he enjoys heading out to...  more »

THE SOLAR SYSTEM COMES TO PASADENA: ANNUAL DPS MEETING
October 16, 2006
Guests: Kevin Baines, Hakan Svedhem
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Planetary Radio begins coverage of the 2006 meeting of the American Astronomical Union's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, held last week in Pasadena, California. We feature conversations...  more »

LIFE ON MARS, VENUS, AND TITAN? MAYBE.
October 9, 2006
Guests: Steve Benner
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Steve Benner of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is figuring out how alien life could exist in places where Earth life would be seriously challenged or impossible. Emily Lakdawalla...  more »

SUPERNOVA: HOW TO BLOW UP A STAR
October 2, 2006
Guests: Thomas Janka
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Astrophysicists are beginning to build the mathematical models complex enough to explain how stars explode. We talk with Thomas Janka of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany. Emily...  more »

BRIAN MARSDEN SAYS EIGHT (PLANETS) IS ENOUGH
September 25, 2006
Guests: Brian Marsden
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Brian Marsden has just retired as Director of the International Astronomical Union's (IAU's) Minor Planet Center, where discoveries about comets, asteroids, and other bodies are reported and...  more »

BEAM UP TO THE STAR TREK 40TH ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION IN LAS VEGAS
September 18, 2006
Guests: Robert Picardo, Rod Roddenberry, Mike Okuda
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We go where no space show has gone before! Mat Kaplan spent two days at the official Star Trek convention. You'll hear Trek star Bob Picardo, Rod Roddenberry, Mike and Denise Okuda on the upcoming...  more »

PROTESTING THE IAU PLANET DEFINITION AND A SMART-1 LUNAR IMPACT RECAP
September 11, 2006
Guests: Mark Sykes, Detlef Koschny
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We have a busy show -- Mark Sykes, Director of the Planetary Science Institute, talks about his petition to the International Astronomical Union protesting its planet definition. And we look back a...  more »

BACK TO THE ARCTIC...IN A SPACESUIT!
September 4, 2006
Guests: Jake Maule, Andrew Steele
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A satellite telephone report from Andrew Steele and Jake Maule of AMASE (Arctic Mars Analoge Svalbard Expedition). Maule wore a new design of spacesuit during much of the just-completed expedition,...  more »

EASY COME, EASY GO: ASTRONOMER MIKE BROWN ON OUR EIGHT-PLANET SOLAR SYSTEM
August 28, 2006
Guests: Mike Brown
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CalTech's Mike Brown returns to Planetary Radio to talk about the International Astronomical Union's new definition of a planet, one that downgrades Pluto and some of Mike's discoveries to "dwarf"...  more »

A PLANETARY POPULATION EXPLOSION? DAVA SOBEL HOPES SO
August 21, 2006
Guests: Dava Sobel
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Do we now live in a solar system with twelve or many more official planets? Galileo's Daughter author Dava Sobel was the only non-scientist on the International Astronomical Union's Planet...  more »