WCA Director, Will Percival, has been elected as co-spokesperson for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). He took up the two-year term, along with co-spokesperson, Alexie Leauthaud (University of California Santa Cruz) at the beginning of September.
The XRISM early science data release features early science data of WCA's Brian McNamara and co-workers. An x-ray spectrum of the Perseus Cluster core shows off the capabilities of the Resolve instrument onboard XRISM.
2023 was a big year for outreach in the WCA!
In the last year the WCA's outreach program has expanded into several new areas. Find out what we've been up to!
The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), and the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), were sucessfully launched onboard the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 47 (H-IIA F47) at 8:42:11 am on September 7, 2023 (Japan Standard Time, JST)/ 7:42:11 pm on September 6, 2023 (EDT) from the Tanegashima Space Center.
Join us to watch the Perseids meteor shower at UWaterloo!
Every August, the Earth's orbit passes through the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Fragments of the comet burn up in our atmosphere, leading to the Perseids meteor shower, one of the most prolific shooting star shows of the year.
WCA's Will Percival and Mike Hudson were at the launch of Euclid and sent us images through the evening before and the day of launch.
Mission will explore the evolution of the dark Universe
The European Space Agency has successfully launched its Euclid satellite at 11:12 EDTtoday from Cape Canaveral, Florida.Eucllid launched without a hitch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9.
The first batch of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument is now available for researchers to mine. Taken during the experiment’s “survey validation” phase, the data include distant galaxies and quasars as well as stars in our own Milky Way
Recent Chandra observations of Messier 84 (M84) in the Virgo Cluster by Bambic et alarethe deepest and most detailed to date and have revealed a remarkable “H”-shaped structure in the 107 – 108 K gas around the galaxy.
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has announced that Canada will proceed to full membership of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).
This builds upon a 2-year cooperation agreement with the SKAO signed by the NRC in November 2021, which allows Canada's scientific and engineering communities to continue participation in the project.
Full membership is expected to provide Canadian astronomers a 6 per cent use-share of the observatory, access to a next-generation radio astronomy facility, and support the establishment of a domestic regional centre. This centre will provide direct connections to data collected with the telescope as well as science support to enable ground-breaking discoveries.