Water on the moon, this week on planetary radio.

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

I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planet society you heard bill nigh mention it last week after decades or possibly centuries of speculation we now know there is water on the moon

jessica sunshine is part of both missions that made this discovery.

We'll get the details from her in a couple of minutes.

Bill Nye looks back to 1976 when we came ever so close to uncovering water ice on the planet Mars.

Emily Lockdawalla winced along with the rest of us when the messenger spacecraft shut off its instruments, just as it was about

to fly by Mercury last week. Messenger is okay now, but someone asked Emily if this could happen

when New Horizons passes Pluto. She's got the answer in Q&A. And then we'll find out how some of your

fellow listeners would destroy the Earth. Let me tell you, you folks are

scary. Bruce Betts will join me on the eve of destruction for this week's what's up segment.

Here's Bill. Hey, hey, Bill Nye, the planetary guy here, vice president of Planetary Society.

And earlier this week, the Planetary Society sponsored a book signing with a brief talk

by none other than Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Earth's moon. And Buzz is

79. He'll be 80 in a few months. And he went on and on about the importance of the United States's

leadership in space travel. And what he was really talking importance of the United States's leadership in space travel.

And what he was really talking about was the United States' leadership in human space travel,

human space exploration.

And this is coincident with the same week in which it has been shown to everybody's satisfaction

that if the Viking II mission, which went to Mars, back in

1976, if it had scraped into the Martian soil, just another five centimeters, instead of going

15 centimeters, but it had gone 20, like the width of your hand. It would have hit water ice.

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