Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Planetary Radio • Apr 22, 2014

A Second Earth, and OSIRIS REx is Go for Asteroid Bennu

Please accept marketing-cookies to listen to this podcast.

Download MP3

On This Episode

20140914 Dante Lauretta thumbnail

Dante Lauretta

OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator for University of Arizona

20140422 Elisa Quintana thumbnail

Elisa Quintana

Kepler Mission Research Scientist for SETI Institute

Finally found: an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone. You’ll hear lead scientist Elisa Quintana make the announcement. Then OSIRIS REx mission Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta will tell us how the spacecraft will return a sample of material from the birth of the solar system. Bill Nye previews the USA Science and Engineering Festival, and Bruce Betts invites everyone to send their names to Bennu on OSIRIS REx.

Kepler-186f: A Second Earth
Kepler-186f: A Second Earth The artist’s concept depicts Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet orbiting a distant star in the habitable zone—a range of distances from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that Earth-size planets exist in the habitable zone of other stars and signals a significant step closer to finding a world similar to Earth.Image: NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyl

Related Links:

This week's prize is the new and improved Planetary Radio t-shirt.

This week's question:

What is the name of the moon orbiting the trans-Neptunian object Quaoar?

To submit your answer:

Complete the contest entry form at http://planetary.org/radiocontest or write to us at [email protected] no later than Tuesday, April 29, at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Last week's question:

What was the dwarf planet Eris named after?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

Who was the tallest astronaut to fly in space, and how tall was he or she?

Answer:

At 6’ 4”, Jim Whetherbee was the tallest astronaut launched into space.