Verified: More Than 700 New Worlds

SETI Institute researcher and member of the Kepler team Jason Rowe helps us dig into the latest big announcement about hundreds of planets in solar systems like our own. Terraced craters on Mars and the Moon? Emily Lakdawalla explains. Okay, it wasn’t taken by Ellen at the Oscars, but a selfie with Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson and the President of the United States? Bruce Betts presents a fiendishly clever What’s UP space trivia contest.

Related Links:

• Kepler Mission Announces a Planet Bonanza
• One of Kepler Mission Principal Investigator Bill Borucki’s Planetary Radio Appearances
• Pretty Pictures of Terraced Craters on Mars
• Bill Nye’s Cosmic Presidential Selfie on Instagram

This week's prize is "Beyond Earth," the beautiful, letterpress 19"x25" poster from Chop Shop. See it at chopshopstore.com.

This week's question:

What Curiosity rover instrument has an acronym name that when pronounced backwards gives you one of the things that instrument measures?

To submit your answer:

Complete the contest entry form at http://planetary.org/radiocontest or write to us at [email protected] no later than Tuesday, March 11, at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Last week's question:

What is the approximate range of elevations on Venus?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

What was the brightest supernova as observed and recorded historically, and approximately how bright was it?

Answer:

At a magnitude of -7.5, SN1006 was the brightest supernova ever—several times brighter than Venus. This was in the year 1006!