Host: Jorge Salazar
Lead Producer: Mike Brennan

ES 22 Producers: Deborah Byrd, Ryan Britton, Emily Howard

Science news of the week:

Scientists announced that they’ve found more hopeful signs of the existence of the Higgs Boson particle

NASA found evidence for what may be a new candidate for the smallest known black hole

EarthSky office at dawn! Happy solstice, everybody.

An elephant seal traveled an astonishing 18,000 miles in less than one year

NASA’s Curiosity rover has traveled 32 million miles in route to Mars

This week’s featured stories:

Solstice 2011 Deborah Byrd talks with Jorge Salazar about the winter solstice, and about seeing planet Mercury near the moon on December 22.

2012, the Mayan calendar and doomsday prophecies Archaeologist Dr. Kathryn Reese-Taylor tells us what will happen on December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan calendar.

Image Credit: roger_jen

Song of the week:

Wiretree’s “Big Coat” from their album “Bouldin”

Thanks for listening in. We’ll catch ya next week!

This week’s musical contributors:

Mother Falcon

Dana Falconberry

Sleep Good

The Black and White Years

One Hundred Flowers

EarthSky 22

Thanks for the great response to EarthSky 22! Tell your friends about the best new science podcast on the Internet - 22 minutes of science and music - direct to you from Austin, Texas. Join producer/host Mike Brennan right here every week for EarthSky 22, brought to you by EarthSky: A Clear Voice for Science.