...where the Universe is our laboratory.
The Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics (WCA) looks to the cosmos to solve the greatest mysteries of the universe. Here, world-class researchers and students come together in an atmosphere of curiosity, creativity and collaboration; exploring our cosmic origin to truly understand the physical processes at work in the Universe. From black holes to cosmology, we aim to understand what lies beyond the Earth. The possibilities for new discovery are limitless.
News
Evidence mounting that dark energy evolves over time
New results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration use the largest 3D map of our universe ever made to track dark energy’s influence over the past 11 billion years. Researchers see hints that dark energy, widely thought to be a “cosmological constant,” might be evolving over time in unexpected ways.
On the same day, DESI has released the largest 3D map of the Universe to date to the public.
Euclid dazzles with new data and images
The first batch of survey data released by the Euclid mission gives us a glimpse into hundreds of thousands of galaxies reaching back 10.5 billion light years - and it's only the beginning.
Prize winning paper!
Andrew Reeves summarizes the paper that jointly won the WCA 2024 Student Paper Prize.
Events
Astroseminar - Frits Paerels
Frits Paerels got his PhD in the Netherlands, was a postdoc and a researcher at UC Berkeley, and has been at Columbia since 1995. He has been a professor of astronomy since 2001. His interests have centered on high energy astrophysics, and especially on X-ray spectroscopy. Some of the topics he has worked on are the spectroscopy of X-ray binaries, the physics of the interstellar medium and the intergalactic medium, galaxy clusters, and, on and off, the spectroscopy of X-ray emitting neutron stars.
WCA-KPL Public Talk - Supermassive Black Holes: How Tiny Titans Shape Galaxies (Marie-Joëlle Gingras)
Supermassive black holes, though tiny compared to their host galaxies, play a crucial role in shaping galaxy evolution. In this month’s KPL astronomy talk, Marie-Joëlle Gingras will explore how these cosmic beasts influence their surroundings through a process known as Active Galactic Nucleus feedback, regulating star formation and transforming galaxies over billions of years.
Astroseminar - Raphael Errani
Raphael is a post doc at Carnegie Mellon University, working on the the clustering properties of dark matter on galactic scales, with a particular focus on the tidal evolution of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. He builds dynamical models to contrast observational data against competing theories of dark matter.