Pluto's Diamond Jubilee this week on planetary radio. I'm Mad Kaplan.

Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan. On February 18, 1930, Earthlings learned they had

another neighbor. The young astronomer who found it was Clyde William Tombaugh. Though he was helped by calculations made by Percival

Lowell, Tomba's discovery remains one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of

observational astronomy. We'll talk with Tom Ba' longtime colleague and friend Rita

Bebebebebei. We'll also get an update on the New Horizons Mission to Pluto and Beyond from principal investigator Alan Stern.

Did you miss the first week of Bruce Betts' new televised astronomy class?

Well don't worry, you can get makeup credit by entering his new What's Up Space Trivia

Contest.

Here's a brief review of headlines from around the universe.

Space Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins and her crew say they are ready to return to space, possibly

as soon as mid-May.

Many new systems will be in place to detect the kind of damage that caused the Columbia disaster just over two years ago.

There may have been just a mild breeze down at the surface, but you'd have to hold on to

your hat in Titan's upper atmosphere, where the Huygens probe was buffeted

by 400 kilometer per hour winds.

Meanwhile, the Cassini Orbiter is taking yet another look at Saturn's big moon this week.

It's increasingly apparent that our galaxy is absolutely filthy with planets.

One of the latest possibilities is the discovery of a so-called

protoplanetary disk of dust and gas found by the Spitzer Space

Telescope. What's especially interesting is that this disk is circling a star that isn't quite a star.

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