Research at the bleeding edge of space 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. Got a wild idea that just might work. You're in luck.

We're headed for the frontiers of space science and engineering with the NASA Institute for Advanced

Concepts. The Institute's

for Advanced Concepts.

The Institute's director Robert Casanova

will join us in a couple of minutes.

Poor Bruce Betts.

You'll hear him struggle through what's up later in this half hour,

providing our new space trivia contest in spite of his cold.

Before we hear from Emily, here are some of this week's headlines.

Say cheese.

Image number 50,000 was captured by the Mars Exploration Rovers last week, and we're

proud to report it was a lovely portrait of Spirit's dust-covered panoramic camera

calibration target, otherwise known as the Mars dial.

You can see the picture of the first interplanetary sundial at planetary.org.

While you're there, take a look at some other stunning snapshots of Saturn's moon, Titan, taken

by Cassini's radar imager during the recent fly-by.

The absence of any obvious craters has scientists thinking the surface of Titan is a very dynamic place,

changing at a relatively fast pace in geologic, or would that be titologic terms, it's just possible that some of the close-ups

have revealed the hypothesized hydrocarbon seas we've talked about.

Much more work is needed before anyone can say so with confidence.

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