Mars

From countless stories of little green men to colonization plans and endless rover and satellite missions, humans are sort of obsessed with Mars. One of those obsessed humans is Hank Green! This week he finally gets to put all his knowledge about his favorite planet to good use: winning fake points on a game show he made up!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!

And if you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:

[Truth or Fail]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12swg6fcCIZYuQh4q9vmW6SBwMoLwnb7jq3s2qT9_Djg/edit?usp=sharing

[Fact Off]

First Mars image: 

The picture: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA14033

Plutonium-238:

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbyz4v/scientists-are-automating-plutonium-production-so-nasa-can-explore-deep-space

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/plutonium-production-space-exploration/

https://www.greenwichtime.com/technology/businessinsider/article/NASA-s-deep-space-nuclear-power-crisis-may-soon-13530374.php

[Ask the Science Couch]

Earth tectonics:

https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/pltec/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/science/plate-tectonics-continents-earth.html

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-plate-tectonics-earth.html

Mars (lack of) tectonics:

https://marsed.asu.edu/mep/tectonics

https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets/online/solar-system/mars/surface/volcanoes/

[Butt One More Thing]

Poop-eating bacteria:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/03/582968023/making-space-food-with-space-poop