This week … a rockin’ alignment of brightest planets Venus and Jupiter with the moon. Song of the week from Jesse Woods: Sparks off his LP Moon Rocks.

Drilling through ice to 3,768 meters (over 12,000 feet), a Russian team reached the surface of Lake Vostok in Antarctica. Plus song of the week by Melogrand.

Glimpses of the early universe with a revolutionary new radio telescope in Europe. Snowy owls in lower 48. Volcanoes and Little Ice Age. Song of the Week by The Lovely Sparrow. EarthSky 22!

What makes a star blow up? And what’s up with the active sun? Song of the week by Boxing Lesson. Your 22 minutes of science and music.

Earth’s forests from space. Plus the planets Jupiter and Venus near the waxing crescent moon in the week ahead. On your 22 minutes of science and music.

Meet Sukanya Chakrabarti. She’s searching for ripples left on visible elements of galaxies by dark matter – on your 22 minutes of science and music from Austin, Texas.

Gavin Schmidt of the blog RealClimate answers two questions. Is climate change real? Are we causing it? On your 22 minutes of science and music.

Where did life come from? The state of the future. On your science and music 22 minutes from Austin, Texas.

Jorge Salazar speaks with an astrophysicist about why it’s important for humans to have a shared story about the creation of the universe. Plus new music!

What the Mayans were really saying – plus December solstice 2011 – on your 22 minutes of science and music.