Shows / Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Our Universe - 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.
Episodes
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Cosmic Microwave Background Surprise
Dark spots in the night sky will still give off a faint glow of microwave light. Scientists call this light the Cosmic Microwave Background. Support this…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Neutrinos
Neutrinos are the most abundant particle with mass in the universe. Trillions of them pass through you every second, yet they are harmless since their…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
How a Nuclear Reactor Works
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Artemis II to the Moon
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Cell Phone Radiation
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Saturn’s Rings and Gas Giants
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Radiocarbon Dating
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Fundamental Particles
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Exoplanet K2-18b
Could this planet beyond our solar system support life? Support this podcast: https://www.deltapublicmedia.org/donate/
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Local Group
We live in the Milky Way galaxy, a member of a collection of around 80 galaxies known as the Local Group.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Asteroid 2024 YR4
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Traveling to Mars and Beyond
How long would it take to fly to Mars? What about Pluto? Let’s look at how long interplanetary travel takes.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Orion Nebula
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
How Fast is Earth Moving?
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?
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Hubble Tension
The universe is expanding, but how different methods for measuring its expansion give us different results. We call this the Hubble Tension.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Light Pollution: How Many Stars in the Night Sky?
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Quantum Computing
Computers, tablets, and phones have become very fast. The latest multicore processors are capable of an incredible number of calculations each and every…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
How Magnetism Works
Let’s study the mystery of magnetism, exploring the tiny particles and invisible fields that govern this powerful interaction.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Physics of Polarizing Sunglasses
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Your Best Chance to See a Nova
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.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications Experiment
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Radio Spectrum
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Acceleration Due to Gravity
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?
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Most Promising Dark Matter Experiment
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Elusive Oxygen-28
Physicists have finally detected the elusive oxygen-28 isotope, but the observations are surprising and unexpected.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Nuclear Fission Reactors
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Exoplanets
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?
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Jupiter’s Moon, Io
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Carrington Event
On Sept. 1, 1859, the most intense geomagnetic storm on record caused a planetwide disturbance.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Basics About Our Moon
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
If Earth Had Two Suns
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Doppler Effect
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)
In September of 2022 NASA conducted the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test demonstrated asteroid…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Strong Force
There are four fundamental forces that govern every interaction that happens in the universe and the strong nuclear force is responsible for keeping the…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Starlink and Space Junk
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Power of Lasers
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
How Long Do Stars Live?
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Our Place in the Universe
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
How Practical is Solar Energy?
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Extreme Temperatures of the Solar System
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
All About Telescopes
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Measuring the Vast Distance to a Star
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?
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
A Planet Far, Far Away
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…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The James Webb Space Telescope
While the Hubble Space Telescope continues to operate, NASA, The European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency have collaborated to build, launch, and…
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
Why Polaris is Special
There are a few misconceptions and many mesmerizing details about the nature of Polaris, also known as the North Star.
- Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio
The Speed Limit of the Universe
We think of the speed of light as almost instantaneous, but compared to the vastness of space, light is slow.