Bruce Betts of The Planetary Society talks Planetary Defense - Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion June 8, 2021

This week on Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion, we welcome Dr. Bruce Betts to the show. He is Chief Scientist and LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society. We will be talking about near-Earth objects, and how we might protect our world from potentially-hazardous asteroids and comets.But first, we journey back almost 75,000  years, to a time when the Toba volcano erupted, wiping out much of the human population at that time. Then, we look up at our planetary companion, the Moon, as it  pays visits in the night sky to four planets of our Solar System throughout the month. And, we're gonna tell you how to see it happen.Plus, we get an inside look at an upcoming book about one of NASA's most-inspiring figures, Katherine Johnson. Finally, before welcoming Dr. Betts to the show, we learn about a solar eclipse taking place this week that's really for the snowbirds!Listen to the podcast here, or watch the video version of this episode at: https://youtu.be/NmFw2oHcgj4--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-cosmic-companion/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-cosmic-companion/support This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aicreatorhouse.substack.com/subscribe