The Cosmic Companion VIP Newsletter June 7, 2021 - Bruce Betts and Planetary Defense

Talking planetary defense with Dr. Bruce Betts of the Planetary Society, plus watching the Moon through June, a chilly solar eclipse, and more!

Hello everyone!

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.

The annual solar eclipse coming June 10 is really for the snowbirds! Image credit: A013231

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!

And…