TUMBLE
SCIENCE

Should we make the move to Mars? And how would we live there? Join us as we pack our bags for Mars with the help of synthetic biology. We’ll find out how astronauts could grow their own food, medicine, and even building materials on the Red Planet. But when Lindsay and Marshall start to disagree about moving to another planet, some tricky questions threaten the mission… This is the second part of our five part series about how tiny life can change our world. In Life Lab, we

EDUCATION RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: PS, ESS 2-PS1-2 Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect How do you launch the largest space telescope ever built into space? The James Webb Space Telescope will travel 1.5 million miles away from Earth to help answer some of our biggest questions about the universe. But first, it has to be launched on a rocket - and the telescope is too big to fit on a rocket. So NASA decided to fold it up - and then unfold it in space. How? NASA scientist

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: ESS How do you get a galaxy named for you? In this episode, we learn about the incredible life of Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, who discovered a new type of galaxy now known as “Burçin’s Galaxy.” Since she was young, Burçin dreamed of studying the stars as an astrophysicist. But she faced many challenges to getting an education, because of what she wanted to wear. Burçin was determined to both be true to her beliefs, and become a scientist. Find

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: PS What happens when a baby falcon meets a balloon telescope in an old Wild West town? An astrophysics animal adventure, of course! Erika Hamden is an astrophysicist who’s attempting to launch a space balloon telescope called FIREBall, an experiment to study distant galaxies. But her mission to the stratosphere leads her to wild nature, when a baby falcon falls out of its nest and onto the telescope. It turns out, launches don't always g

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: ESS What happened when astronomers discovered the first alien from another solar system? This is a true story! In 2017, a telescope in Hawaii spotted a distant object in the night sky, behaving like nothing we’d ever seen before. They named it ‘Oumuamua, and an astronomical chase began! Join astronomer Jane Luu on her quest to track it down and figure out how the first interstellar visitor arrived in our solar system. Listen to Jane's f

EDUCATION RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: ESS How do you become an astronaut? That’s what Tumble listener Margaret wants to know. We go straight to the source to get an answer: A NASA astronaut! Dr. Serena Auñon-Chancellor shares her journey to outer space with us. Starting from being a kid watching shuttle launches, to her school’s Astronaut Club, all the way to NASA’s Astronaut Candidate program, and finally to the International Space Station. Serena also shares the surprising t

EDUCATION RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: ESS How does a country start its own space program? Come with us to Ireland to find out, and meet one of the students whose childhood dreams of launching a satellite are about to come true. Lana Salmon is part of a team from University College Dublin building Ireland’s first-ever satellite. We get to step inside the lab and learn what it takes to design, engineer, and launch experiments into space. Want to learn more about EIRSAT? Check

EDUCATION RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: ESS Meet Ana Humphrey. She hasn’t graduated from high school yet, but she’s already discovered 560 places outside our solar system where we could find hidden planets. Ana won the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search with her project that used a mathematical model to pinpoint locations for exoplanet search parties. But Ana’s story is more than a successful science fair project. Find out how Ana’s love for science, math, and making a differe

EDUCATION RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: ESS Is there a hard edge to the solar system? The question led to a big, breakthrough discovery that changed the way we picture the solar system - and every other solar system in the universe. The Kuiper Belt is a gigantic field of small, icy objects beyond Neptune, “planet scraps” left over from the formation of the planets. For many, many years, no one believed it might exist. Until astronomers Jane Luu and David Jewitt decided to see wh

EDUCATION RESOURCES: NGSS Standards: ESS It’s a scientific controversy of planetary proportions! Is Pluto a planet, or not? In this episode, you decide, after we present two sides of an epic astronomy argument. Back in 2006, the International Astronomer’s Union voted on a definition of the word “planet” that excluded Pluto and other newly dubbed “dwarf planets” from planethood status. Astronomers - and everybody else - quickly chose sides. We dive deep into the debate and lea