A near miss for Mars and Bill Nye returns this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan and we are jam-packed this week. You've probably heard

Don Yeomans quoted in the last few days. Don heads NASA's Near Earth Object program and it's

his office that has been tracking the course of a 50 meter rock

that won't be going splat on the red planet. He'll join us in a couple of minutes.

Emily will also sound off about that near Mars object in her Q&A segment and

Bruce Bats will bounce in to tell us what's up and what's going down with the

latest space trivia contest.

Wow, we barely have time to tell you that Shuttle Atlantis is now targeting

February 7 for its next lift-off. By the time you hear this, humankind should

have returned to the planet Mercury. That's reason enough for Bill Nye to celebrate.

I'll be right back with Don Yeomans.

Hey, Bill Nye, the planetary guy here. I'm the science guy and of course vice president of planetary society and this is

another historic week in space exploration. We are sending the messenger

spacecraft very very near the planet Mercury. Now I remember or if I may I remember when I was

told that Mercury goes around the Sun very fast compared to other planets

only 88 Earth days which is appropriate

the messenger of the gods Mercury had wings on his sandals for crying out loud and I

remember being charmed that like the moon I was told mercury spun just once for every

orbit of the sun. Well that turns out not to be true. It was a big discovery with radar

that mercury spends two-thirds of a time when it goes around the sun.

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