Sun Rings: Music of the Spheres From the Kronos Quartet

The Kronos Quartet came to Long Beach, California's Carpenter Performing Arts Center in March to perform Sun Rings, the awe-inspiring composition by minimalist pioneer Terry Riley.  Mat Kaplan moderated a fascinating conversation with the musicians and Bob Cole Conservatory of Music composer and faculty member Alan Shockley.  This week's show presents excerpts of that conversation, along with samples of Sun Rings, and planetary scientist Don Gurnett's space sounds that inspired and are integrated with it.  Bill Nye reports from Washington D.C., while Emily shows us a huge new Chinese lunar lander.

Related Links

Listen to the complete conversation with the Kronos Quartet and Alan Shockley here:

• The Kronos Quartet
• Carpenter Performing Arts Center
• Gigantic Chang'e 3 Undergoes Testing

Trivia Contest

This week's prize is Bill Nye the Science Guy's voice welcoming your voicemail callers!

This week's question:
Who was the only American astronaut to fly on consecutive missions?

To submit your answer:
Complete the contest entry form at http:planetary.org/radiocontest no later than Monday, May 20, at 2pm Pacific Time.

Last week's question:
Name the five largest moons in the solar system!

Answer:
The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:
What is the spectral centerline of the sodium doublet?  (The answer is numerical.)

Answer:
About 589.29 nanometers.