The man who told the world Huygens made it this week on planetary radio.

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

I'm Matt Kaplan.

JPL scientist Sammy Asmar is our guest.

He seems to be making a habit of being the first to know

about a spacecraft's success. We'll talk to him about his most recent experience and how one of Huygen's most critical experiments

was saved from failure.

You enjoy Bruce Betts on our what-up segment each week. Are you ready to see him on TV? Is he?

Well, we'll find out when he offers up another trivia contest later today.

Here is a sampling of news from around the solar system.

Scientists are wondering why Saturn's South Pole is the warmest spot on the planet.

These findings came not from the Cassini orbiter this time, but from Earth-based telescopes. On the other hand

Cassini has noticed an odd dark spot in the haze surrounding the ring planet, a

spot centered right over the South Pole.

You can check out the images at planetary.org, which is where you can also read about glowing

Mars.

It's called Nightglow, and it has been discovered by the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter.

The very faint ultraviolet light appears to be caused by chemical reactions in the Martian

atmosphere. And back here on third rock, the glow is coming from political heat in Washington.

By the time you hear this show,

NASA will have begun sharing news about its 2006 budget. We'll bring you more on this subject next

week. It's safe to assume a rolling stone on Titan gathers no moss, but what would make it

...