Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio: Recent Episodes
Delta College Public Radio
Do you have questions about space, time and the nature of the universe? Join Aurelian Balan, Delta College associate professor of physics, as he uses astronomy and physics to help answer your questions while diving into some amazing topics.
If your city decided to build a nuclear power plant a few miles from your home, how would you feel? Today, we’re going to explore what goes on inside one of these energy production machines to help us answer this question. Support this podcast:https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
The Artemis program is NASA’s current multi-mission campaign to return humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The Apollo missions were about visiting the Moon, while Artemis is designed for long-term presence on the Moon. Support this podcast:https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
We already know about how certain wavelengths of high energy light from a cell phone can disrupt sleep and concentration. But what about the radiation that we can’t see?Support this podcast:https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
While Saturn’s rings are best known, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune each have their own rings. They’re just a lot harder to see. Support this podcast:https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
How do we know the age of fossils? Today we’ll focus on how radiocarbon dating works and explore a couple other methods for figuring out how long something has been around.Support this podcast:https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
We used to think atoms were the smallest unit of matter, but they are made up of smaller particles which are, in turn, made up of even smaller particles.Support this podcast:https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
Could this planet beyond our solar system support life?Support this podcast:https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
We live in the Milky Way galaxy, a member of a collection of around 80 galaxies known as the Local Group.
An asteroid called 2024 YR4 currently has a small chance of hitting Earth in December of 2032. While it’s not massive enough to be considered a planetary threat, it is capable of leveling a city.
How long would it take to fly to Mars? What about Pluto? Let’s look at how long interplanetary travel takes.
Right now, in a nebula not so far from you, new stars are forming. How do stars form, and how close to Earth does star formation happen? In this episode, we’ll take a look at a region of stellar birth that’s about as close to Earth as it gets.
Earth is always moving through the Solar System, and the Solar System is always moving through the galaxy, so just how fast are we moving through space?
The universe is expanding, but how different methods for measuring its expansion give us different results. We call this the Hubble Tension.
How many stars can you see with the naked eye at night? 40 or 50 thousand? Or is it 100,000 stars? Have you ever tried to count? Well, a few astronomers have counted, and the number is pretty… disappointing.
Computers, tablets, and phones have become very fast. The latest multicore processors are capable of an incredible number of calculations each and every second. Yet, we are changing the way we do computing thanks to our ever-increasing knowledge in the field of quantum physics. How does quantum computing work, and are quantum computers faster than classical computers?
Let’s study the mystery of magnetism, exploring the tiny particles and invisible fields that govern this powerful interaction.
Ages ago, Venus may have had oceans of water and been much more like Earth. Where did all the water on Venus go? And why is it such a hellscape today?
Have you ever squinted at a shimmering lake or felt blinded by the reflection off a wet road? That's glare, and it's not just uncomfortable – it can make it difficult to see clearly.
A nova called T Coronae Borealis erupts every 80 years and your only chance to see it is sometime between right now and September of 2024.
Imagine sending massive amounts of data from our spacecraft and receiving high-res video in minutes, not hours or days. It might sound like science fiction, but that's the reality NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications Demo, or DSOC, is aiming for.
The radio spectrum is a fascinating realm of invisible energy carrying everything from your favorite radio station to your Wi-Fi connection and beyond. So how does it work?
We’ve all heard this number before – 9.8 m/s² – But what does that really tell us? And what does it have to do with our weight?
Mars is a world of towering mountains, vast plains, and deep canyons. Today, we're going to take a look at one of the most remarkable features on Mars: Valles Marineris or… the Mariner Valley.
Most of the universe is made of a type of matter that doesn’t interact with light—dark matter. This is a big deal—throughout history we’ve studied and learned about the universe by observing it, yet we can’t directly observe most of the universe!
Physicists have finally detected the elusive oxygen-28 isotope, but the observations are surprising and unexpected.
In 1942, a team working on the Manhattan Project were the first scientists to build a nuclear fission reactor, but it was only the first man-made fission reactor on Earth.
How many planets do we know of outside of our own Solar System? Are any of these planets habitable? How do we even find them?
There is a moon in our Solar System that is considered to be the most volcanically active world that we know of. This Moon is one of Jupiter’s 90+ known moons, and is called Io.
On Sept. 1, 1859, the most intense geomagnetic storm on record caused a planetwide disturbance.
Every now and then the news picks up on something interesting going on with the Moon. We often hear about a supermoon, or a harvest Moon, or my personal favorite the Super Blood Wolf Moon! Let’s dive into what all these terms mean.
Earth orbits the Sun in the habitable zone – a place where liquid water can exist in great quantities on our surface. But how would things change if Earth revolved around two suns, and do we know of any real-life planets that orbit more than one star?
Have you ever noticed how the siren of an ambulance sounds higher in pitch when it’s approaching, and lower when it’s driving away from you? That shift in pitch is related to the Doppler effect – an observed change in the length of a wave due to relative motion between the source and the observer.
In September of 2022 NASA conducted the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test demonstrated asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.
There are four fundamental forces that govern every interaction that happens in the universe and the strong nuclear force is responsible for keeping the nucleus of an atom together.
Never before in Earth’s history have we seen such a dramatic increase in the number of artificial satellites, and potential future debris, in orbit around the planet.
Whether or not you realize it, many things you do in your day-to-day life rely on laser technology. Let’s go through how lasers works and some potential applications.
What determines how long a star like our Sun lives? It’s been around about four and a half billion years, so why hasn’t it burned out yet? Also, what about all the other stars in our galaxy? How long will they live? Let’s take a look at the lifecycle and lifespan of these celestial powerhouses.
The universe is vast, and our place in the universe has been the subject of a large amount of research. Let’s take a close look at Earth’s place in the universe.
How practical is solar energy and putting solar panels up on your roof? What exactly will that accomplish for the environment and for your finances? Today, we’re going to look at the practical aspects of powering your home and community with solar.
Earth has a pretty large range of temperatures, but make no mistake about it, even with the extremes from Death Valley to the South Pole, it’s still mild here compared to any other world.
To take a closer look at the wonderous nature of the night sky, you may have considered getting a telescope at some point. Today, we look at different telescope types and a couple potential ways to see deeper into the universe.
Stars are so ridiculously distant that it’s hard to understand just how far-off they are. But how do we know, really, how far away stars are?
How may planets do we know of outside of our solar system… beyond the influence of our Sun? When a planet is found to orbit a star other than the Sun, it is called an exoplanet. Currently, there are around 5,000 known exoplanets.
While the Hubble Space Telescope continues to operate, NASA, The European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency have collaborated to build, launch, and successfully deploy the most powerful and complex space telescope ever built.
There are a few misconceptions and many mesmerizing details about the nature of Polaris, also known as the North Star.
We think of the speed of light as almost instantaneous, but compared to the vastness of space, light is slow.
Every day, the Earth receives enough energy from the Sun to meet our energy needs for a year, thanks to nuclear fusion.
The night sky is likely to get a lot more dynamic in the coming years because of companies looking to get into the space Internet business.
Earth has one of the largest moons in the Solar System, even compared to the massive outer planets. How did Earth get such a massive moon?
Learn the difference between these two tests, what they do, and what kind of exposure you get from them.
Explores the radio waves and microwaves that make our cell phones work and see how our cellular technology might affect us on a cellular level.
How do mysterious little particles with no electric charge and nearly zero mass shed light on the creation of the universe?
Lately, we have become interested in the ice, rock, and metal just beyond our atmosphere.
The irresistible force of gravity means that we're on an eventual collision course with our neighboring galaxies.
How we generate our electricity and heat our homes affects everything from the environment to our wallets. So how do Michigan and the United States as a whole produce their energy?
Nothing can go faster than light and nothing else can achieve light speed, but why is this the speed limit for the universe?
NASA scientists recently fired up four thrusters on Voyager 1 that haven't been used since 1980 to better explore interstellar space.
How many planets are there is the Solar System? There are eight that we have observed directly, but there could be a ninth (and we're not talking about Pluto).
Thanks to the finite speed of light, we're looking into the past every time we look into the night sky and some of the objects we're looking at might not even exist anymore.
Our computers, tablets, and phones have gotten very fast, but can we make them even faster using quantum computers?
Betelgeuse is 12 times more massive than the Sun, but when it comes to stars, the more massive you are, the faster and harder you die.
The speed of light is the speed limit for the universe. While nothing with mass can meet or exceed that limit, Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity tells us some of the strange things that happen when matter approaches the speed of light.
The gravitational force holds our galaxy, our Solar System, and even our planet together, yet it's very weak compared to the other three fundamental forces.
If you spent some time traveling on a space ship near the speed of light and then returned to Earth, you would find everyone on Earth had aged more than you.
Earth is always moving through the Solar System and the Solar System is always moving through the galaxy. Just how fast are moving through space?
Just about everyone in the Northern Hemisphere knows about the North Star, but has it always been the North Star?
Every single interaction in the universe can be boiled down to one of four fundamental forces: the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force.
Sometimes light behaves like a wave. Sometimes it behaves like a particle. Let's take a deep look into the very nature of light.
There are over 3,500 planets outside of our known solar system and we're always finding more. But the star Trappist 1 is particularly exciting because there are seven confirmed earth-sized planets in its orbit, all with the potential for liquid water.
How many satellites have humans put into orbit and how many of them are operational? What exactly are those satellites doing above us and which country has the most satellites in orbit?
How does a nuclear reactor work and how is the process different than what goes on inside a star?
How long would it take to fly to Mars? How about Pluto? What is the fastest our ships and probes can travel and how far have our probes made it in the Solar System?
What would it take to colonize Mars, the Moon, or even set up a permanent, self-sustaining vessel in low-Earth orbit?
Because of Faraday's experiments, we now have electric motors, generators, transformers, and basically the foundation for all modern electronics.
The ISS is a little larger than a football field and has been orbiting Earth since 1988. What purpose does it serve and what has it taught us about living in space?
Delve into the history of the dwarf planet Pluto, including the New Horizons flyby in 2015 and that controversial designation of "dwarf planet."
Try to put a 40-foot ladder in a 20-foot garage and it won't fit. That is, unless you're moving at near light speed. And you're moving along with the ladder.