An all-star panel protects Earth and Mars this week on planetary radio.

Welcome, I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of a human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

There's planetary defense, which we talk about a lot because it's important,

but that's about protecting just one world

from catastrophe, our own.

Whereas planetary defenders worry about big rocks,

planetary protectors focus on microscopic threats and they consider all

worlds or at least all that have even the tiniest chance of supporting life.

We'll talk with three heroes in this evolving field,

including NASA Planetary Protection Officer Lisa Pratt.

Also acting Associate Administrator of NASA's Office of International and Interagency Relations, Mike Gold,

and old friend of the show, Alan Stern.

Alan recently chaired a NASA Independent Review board that looked long and hard at planetary

protection.

Of course we've also got another fun session with the chief scientist Bruce Betts, and we are

moments from a quick visit with Planetary

Society editorial director Jason Davis. It's a whole lot of show. Jason is also one of the

prime movers behind the downlink, our weekly newsletter.

The October 2nd issue starts with a shot of Jupiter that you might swear was captured

by Voyager Galileo or Juno.

No, it was the venerable Hubble Space Telescope that snapped this stunning

image a couple of months ago. Europa makes a cameo appearance. Here's a very brief

...