Hubble's infrared sister in the sky, 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.

If anything, the Spitzer Space Telescope is a bit more of a miracle than the Hubble Space Telescope,

and it is proving its scientific value on what seems like a daily basis. We'll talk with B Thomas Sofer, director of the Spitzer

Science Center, about this amazing instrument. Later today, Bruce Betts is positively

poilish over this week's space trivia contest.

But wait, there's more, beginning with these space headlines.

Okay, remember last week's show in which I reported that Mars rover opportunity would be roving

again within a few weeks. I should have said hours. After spending more than a

month stuck in a Martian sand trap, the little explorer is once again doing what it does best.

Get the details at planetary.org.

Cosmos 1, the solar sail has been mounted atop the Volner rocket that will boost it into Earth orbit June 21st.

All that remains to be done is to install the rocket in a Russian Navy submarine and put to sea.

You can check out the new solar sale section on the web at

planetary.org. We'll also be providing special coverage of the mission over the next

two editions of planetary radio.

And Deep Impact is hurtling toward that spectacular 4th of July fireworks show in space.

We're going to try to devote our show that week to this Comet Smackdown Mission. In the meantime there's an update at, you guessed at planetary.org.

Tom Sopher is up in a minute right after Emily Lachto-Wala examines a colorful mystery on Saturn.

Stay tuned, space cadets. Hi, I'm Emily Luck de Walla with questions and answers. A listener asked, in Cassini images of Saturn, the northern hemisphere is blue while the southern hemisphere is not.

Why is that?

True color images of Saturn from Cassini show a yellow-orange-colored globe to the south of the

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