How to build a better galaxy this week on planetary radio.

Welcome to the Travel Show that takes you to the Final Frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society.

Haviera Gettys is the brand new PhD who is lead author of a paper that documents the creation

of a galaxy called Arras.

The twist is that she and her colleagues created Eris themselves.

It took nine months of number crunching on a NASA supercomputer, but the resulting model

is the first that looks like a galaxy out here in the real world.

I'll ask Javiera how they pulled it off.

Bill Nye finds the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the latest news about

NASA's budget from Washington. Emily Lochuwala reports that Japanese

scientists have nearly written an asteroid's life story based on a few microscopic bits

of dust returned by the Hayabusa probe.

Our big finish will find Bruce Betts wearing his new Star Wars T-shirt.

You'll get an even more coveted planetary radio t-shirt if you win the new space trivia contest.

We'll start out this time with Bill who was on his way to

LA International Airport when we got the chance to talk.

You sure spent a lot of time flying around places.

Well, I'm en route to Texas, to the Hispanic Engineering Science and Technology Conference.

We're going to get these young people in the pipeline so that we have scientists and engineers for a better

tomorrow for all humankind. No big deal.

And next week I think we're going to be able to, if all goes well, talk to you in South Africa.

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