Puddles on Mars this week on planetary radio. I'm Matt Kaplan of The Planetary Society.

Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society. Principal investigator Peter Smith

told us months ago that the best of the Phoenix Mars Polar Lander Mission might be yet to come. We got proof last week when a team led by

Nilton Renno announced that what looked like drops of liquid water on one of

the Phoenix landing struts were exactly that.

Dr. Reno will tell us much more on today's show,

including how those droplets managed to stick around,

possibly for days.

Bill Nye, the science and planetary guy, will tell us what a new electric car and space

exploration have in common and Bruce Betts will help us find a planet or three in

the night sky. Emily Lochuwala has the week off so we've got a Q&A classic for you.

Discovery is back on Earth. The shuttle successfully delivered to the

International Space Station everything from new solar wings to a replacement urine processing unit.

Listeners tell us the combined ISS and shuttle were a spectacular wandering star.

There's an amazing story at planetary.org by my colleague

Amir Alexander. It tells the tale of the first asteroid to be found and tracked

before it impacted Earth. Fragments were later found in the Sudanese desert. Here's

Bill.

Hey Bill Nye the Planetary Guy here, Vice President of the Planetary Society, and last night I did an awards presentation for

scholarships for middle and high school kids who are excited about science and

excited about the future at the California Science Center.

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