...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
How an Oddball Hot Jupiter Is Reshaping What We Know About Planets Beyond Our Solar System
A distant, scorching planet with its hot spot in the wrong place has puzzled astronomers for nearly a decade. New research led in part by the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics's Assistant Professor Lisa Dang and her PhD student Ying (Zoe) Shu has turned up the strongest evidence yet for what's behind it, and a hint that our models of these extreme worlds may need to change.
Image credit: Artistic impression of CoRoT-2b | Keith Miller (Caltech/IPAC - SELab)
A decade of cosmic discovery
After 10 years of observing the shapes of 61 million distant galaxies, the UNIONS (Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey) collaboration is sharing data that provides strong evidence supporting the standard model of cosmology that the universe is dominated by dark matter and dark energy.
This is the first survey of this scale conducted in the Northern Hemisphere. By measuring how gravity from dark matter distorts the appearance of the galaxies across the northern sky, an effect called weak gravitational lensing, the collaboration has revealed how matter is distributed across the Universe. Dr. Mike Hudson leads the UNIONS weak lensing team.
Banting Postdoctoral Fellow joins Waterloo to advance exoplanet research
Banting Postdoctoral Fellow Emily Deibert has joined the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics to advance research on planets beyond our solar system.