André Bormanis and Emily Lakdawalla on Life, the Universe and Everything

Join us for a wide-ranging, salon-style conversation about space exploration, science, art and more. Mat’s guests are astronomer, television producer/writer and former Star Trek science advisor André Bormanis and Planetary Society Senior Editor Emily Lakdawalla. Bruce Betts is at his most scary in a What’s Up segment recorded on Halloween.

Related Links:

• Emily Lakdawalla receives an honorary doctorate from the Open University
• Emily Lakdawalla’s “The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs its Job”
• Memory Alpha bio for André Bormanis
• André Bormanis’ “Star Trek Science Logs”
• Chop Shop Planetary Society Store

This week's prizes are the Chop Shop-designed Planetary Society t-shirt, AND a 200-point iTelescope.net astronomy account.

This week's question:

What is the current designation for the first-ever interstellar asteroid to be identified by astronomers? Its discovery was announced just days ago. The object was originally misidentified and named.

To submit your answer:

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

Last week's question:

Where are the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) gravitational wave detectors located?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

What two moons in our solar system have the highest and second highest densities?

Answer:

Io is the moon in our solar system that has the highest density. The Earth’s Moon comes in second.