Flying through the Geysers of Anselotus, 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. A few weeks ago the Cassini

spacecraft came within 52 kilometers of one of the most mysterious bodies in our

solar system. As it did so it sniff sniff the gigantic plumes of gas and dust that shoot out of Saturn's

little moon.

Science team member John Spencer will report to us on how those plumes smelled and what we're learning about the forces that

power them. We'll also speculate about the chance of life below the surface of

Enceladus. Emily Lochuil will tell us Kucini's path through the Saturn system allows it to do such amazing things.

Bill Nye, the science guy, has learned that more than half the stars in our galaxy may have rocky planets circling them, planets that could

be like Earth.

And Bruce Betts looks out halfway across the universe at the brightest light anyone has ever

seen up there with the regular cast of

characters in our what's up night sky report. So where's Alan Stern? Some of

you may have heard me say that NASA's Associate Administrator for Science would be our

guest on this week's show.

Well that was before he announced his resignation.

Alan has taken a rain check on his return to planetary radio, we expect to have him back in our microphone before long.

Here's part of what Lou Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, had to say about Dr. Stern's service.

During his tenure, Alan made significant changes

that have helped restore the importance of science in NASA's mission.

He also worked to undo the separation that has occurred between science and exploration in previous years

and redirected the Mars program to focus on Mars sample return.

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