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A Helicopter On Mars, Some Gas On Venus

An illustration of NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter flying on Mars. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
An illustration of NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter flying on Mars. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Last year, Scientists found traces of phosphine -- a gas linked to organic life -- on Venus. Now scientists are using 50 year old data from a probe that went to Venus in the 1970s to confirm it’s the real thing. We’ll talk with planetary scientist Paul Byrne about the back-and-forth of the findings and how digging through a half-century old collection of data could get scientists closer to confirming this stinky gas on one of our closest planetary neighbors.

But first, NASA’s Perseverance rover is hard at work, exploring Jezero crater since landing back in February. But the dune-buggy sized rover is about to get upstaged by a tiny helicopter. We’ll talk with We Martians host Jake Robins about the first flight of Ingenuity and the science mission ahead for Percy.

That's ahead on Are We There Yet? here on WMFE -- America's Space Station.

Brendan Byrne is Central Florida Public Media's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing the organization's internship program. Byrne also hosts Central Florida Public Media's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration, and the weekly news roundup podcast "The Wrap."