While the Kepler spacecraft hunts for habitable planets beyond the solar system, we’ve let one of our own planets slip away! Find out why Pluto’s demotion to dwarf status created a public uproar as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reads us his hate mail. From third-graders!

Also, how we might find Earth-like planets… the possibility of life on Saturn’s moon Titan… and TED Prize winner Jill Tarter’s vision for finding E.T.

And, the man who made it all possible: 400 years of Galileo and the telescope. Part of our series for the International Year of Astronomy.

Guests

• Neil deGrasse Tyson - Astrophysicist, Head of the Hayden Planetarium, and author of The Pluto Files:The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet
• Alan Stern - Planetary Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, lead investigator on NASA’s New Horizons Mission
• Jeffrey Van Cleve - Astronomer at the Kepler Mission Science Office
• Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientist and Lead for NASA’s Cassini Mission
• Jill Tarter - Director of SETI Research at the SETI Institute
• Andy Fraknoi - Astronomer at Foothill College and author of Voyages Through the Universe

Listen to the podcast: "A Man, a Planet, a Tenal: Panama!" »

While the Kepler spacecraft hunts for habitable planets beyond the solar system, we’ve let one of our own planets slip away! Find out why Pluto’s demotion to dwarf status created a public uproar as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reads us his hate mail. From third-graders!

Also, how we might find Earth-like planets… the possibility of life on Saturn’s moon Titan… and TED Prize winner Jill Tarter’s vision for finding E.T.

And, the man who made it all possible: 400 years of Galileo and the telescope. Part of our series for the International Year of Astronomy.

Guests

• Neil deGrasse Tyson - Astrophysicist, Head of the Hayden Planetarium, and author of The Pluto Files:The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet
• Alan Stern - Planetary Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, lead investigator on NASA’s New Horizons Mission
• Jeffrey Van Cleve - Astronomer at the Kepler Mission Science Office
• Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientist and Lead for NASA’s Cassini Mission
• Jill Tarter - Director of SETI Research at the SETI Institute
• Andy Fraknoi - Astronomer at Foothill College and author of Voyages Through the Universe

Listen to the podcast: "A Man, a Planet, a Tenal: Panama!" »