Deep Impact, the reality show, this week on planetary radio. Hi everyone and welcome again to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan. What else would you call a

mission that will smack a comet with a big copper ball going 23,000 miles an hour?

We'll talk with Deep Impact's principal investigator, Micah Hearn. and and a new space trivia contest. We'll get that copper ball rolling with these

headlines. Mars Exploration Rover's spirit celebrated its one-year anniversary on

the Red Planet with more intriguing discoveries.

They go by the names Wishing Well and Wish Stone, a couple of rocks that are unlike any

seen before on Mars.

For one thing, they're full of phosphorus. You can hear what last

week's guest Steve Squires had to say about them at planetary.org.

While you're there check out the shot Opportunity took of its own mangled heat shield.

The orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory has found what may be the biggest bang since the Big Bang itself. It snapped a picture of a supermassive black hole in the

center of a distant galaxy. The 100 million-year-old eruption from this cosmic cataclysm has the mass of about 300 million sons.

And the Huygens probe is in good shape as it closes in on Titan.

Next week we'll have a complete report on its parachute descent through the thick

atmosphere surrounding Saturn's biggest moon, possibly ending with shots of the

surface. Deep Impact is on deck. First though, Emily is asked if an asteroid impact could do

what a terrible earthquake has done to nations surrounding the Indian Ocean.

I'll be right back. Hi, I'm Emily Loch Duwala with questions and answers.

A listener asked, could a tsunami be created by an asteroid impact? How big would it be?

Since 70% of the Earth is covered by water, it is much more likely than not for an asteroid impact to occur in the ocean.

And yes, large impacts will certainly cause tsunami.

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