Our Universe - Delta College Public Radio

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?

What is antimatter and how can we use it?

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?

An exploration of Elon Musk's privately-funded space program, SpaceX.

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.