Rocketing Into the Aurora With Neal Brown

It’s back to Alaska, this time to the Poker Flat Research Range, where former Director Neal Brown and his staff launched sounding rockets into the heart of the Aurora Borealis. Emily Lakdawalla explores newly-discovered and very distant dwarf planets. Bill Nye the Science guy has the latest on NASA’s planetary science budget. Bruce Betts tells us about a total lunar eclipse that will dazzle North America.

Related Links:

• Poker Flat Research Range
• Neal Brown’s Alaska Science Explained
• A Second Sedna—What Does It Mean?
• The NASA Budget: What Next?

This week's prize is the new and improved Planetary Radio t-shirt.

This week's question:

In what year after 2014 does the next total lunar eclipse tetrad begin?

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, April 8, at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Last week's question:

What major moon orbits Saturn at about the same distance our Moon orbits the Earth?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

How many of Jupiter’s moons are larger than Earth’s Moon? Extra points: name it or them.

Answer:

Io, Callisto, and Ganymede are the three moons of Jupiter that are bigger than Earth’s Moon.