Phil Plate joins us for a helping of bad astronomy this week on planetary Radio. Radio. Welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society. The bad astronomer himself finally returns

to our show, bringing with him three of the stories in the news that have him burning hotter

than a supernova.

Stick around for a fun conversation.

Emily Lockwala's just moments away.

The Planetary Society blogger previews what's in store

around the solar system during April. And we'll talk about the images and other science

results starting to flow from messenger at Mercury.

Bill Nye celebrates the first estimate of Earth-like planets in our galaxy that is based on real data,

and Bruce Betts will call in from Manassas, Virginia,

where he is helping to prepare microorganisms for a trip aboard Space Shuttle Endeavor.

Endeavor is still scheduled to begin its last mission on April 19

and it looks like I'll be watching the launch with our own Bill Nye, who says you don't get second

chances in life, listen for our special coverage in about three weeks.

And if you're going to be in Southern California on May 28, why not join us for the

taping of planetary radio live? Yes, we're going to do it again. More details next

week. Emily, before we get to talking about beautiful images coming in from Messenger already,

say a word or two about your regular monthly feature, what's up in the solar system.

This is a feature that I've been doing for more than a year.

I realized that I was starting to lose track of what was going on with some of the active and ongoing space missions.

So about a year ago I started summarizing the current activities of the approximately 20 spacecraft that are exploring across the solar system.

...