Author Mary Roach packs for Mars this week on planetary Radio. Radio. Welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the Final Frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society.

She has been called the most entertaining science writer in America.

Mary Roach may also be the funniest.

The author of Stiff, Spook, and Bonk has now written Packing for Mars, a delightful and surprisingly

informative book about how really, really hard it is to live in space.

I think you'll have as much fun listening to our conversation

as I did. Bruce Betts will entertain us with a what's up look at the night sky as he

recaps a busy week in space history. And Emily Lachto-walla is just seconds away.

Bill Nye, the science guy is on vacation. He'll return with a new commentary next week.

Emily Visual Wonders abound in several of last week's blog entries.

Let's start with some terrific images from Cassini and sort of a visual riddle that you post for people at first.

It's a shot that looks like somebody

firing phasers at Enceladus.

Yeah, you can see the edge of Enceladus's crescent. Then there's this weird streak of bright

light. I like the phaser analogy I was

thinking a lightsaber myself but what we're actually looking at is the

barely sunlit limb of Saturn where where the spacecraft is is practically behind the planet as seen from the sun so you

only see the tiniest crescent and Saturn's so much bigger than Enceladus that you only see a tiny

little sliver of its crescent sitting behind the moon.

It's a pretty amazing shot.

Followed by an animation, which is beautiful in itself.

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