surveying the universe in

in unprecedented detail 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.

There is a telescope and camera that have patiently methodically photographed the sky for many years.

The result has been a single awe-inspiring image with more than a trillion pixels,

along with data that will serve as a reference for many years to come.

Now the Sloane Digital Sky Survey is taking the next giant leap into our universe.

We'll talk about all this with the survey's scientific spokesperson Bob Nickle.

Everybody else on the show today will have nice things to say about Messenger,

the spacecraft that has just gone into orbit around Mercury.

But Bill Nye will also tell us how the corrosive skies of Venus

may have raised a caution flag for our own world.

And Bruce Betts will tell us where to look for a little mercury in the night sky.

That'll be on what's up.

First up, though, is Emily Lochuwala, the Planetary Society's Science and Technology

Coordinator, and its celebrated blogger.

Emily, no question what the big story was last week and that was out at Mercury.

That was very exciting.

You know, I was really nervous.

I think mostly because of Akatsiki's recent failure

to enter orbit, and also because one of my grad school

office mates, Louise Proctor, is the head of the imaging team on that

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