News

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.

We are pleased to welcome our new Outreach Coordinator, Roan Haggar. Roan is looking forward to working with the wider Kitchener-Waterloo community, and helping to make astronomy accessible to as many people as possible.

After months of anticipation, we are proud to announce that the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics has a new location. The newly renovated space is equipped with nine offices, a common area and a boardroom.

We are very excited to welcome our postdoctoral fellows, staff and visitors to our new space, which is still located on the second floor of the Physics building.

Three years ago, history was made when the first image of a black hole inspired wonder and awe around the world as we glimpsed the shadow of light escaping from the supermassive black hole M87*. Today, history is being made again as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration releases the image of a second black hole — Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) — the one at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Professor Will Percival, Director of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, has been awarded a grant by the Canadian Space Agency to support his work helping to lead the Euclid satellite mission.

Two researchers in the Faculty of Science have received funding from the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF): Holger Kleinke from the Department of Chemistry and Will Percival from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Robert Mann, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a University Professor by the University of Waterloo.

The world watched breathlessly as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Christmas morning and travelled 1.5 million kilometers to its earth-trailing orbit. Now, we breathe a sigh of relief as the telescope has begun sending us the first images as it aligns and prepares for research, launching a new chapter in humanity’s endeavor to study the universe.

Three research groups within the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics today found out that they have been awarded over 4000 cpu years of computing time for science analyses over the next year. These resources were awarded following a national competition run by Compute Canada (which is soon to be taken over by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada).

At first glance, astrophysics may not seem to have much in common with tracking and predicting the spread of a global virus. But to Professor Niayesh Afshordi, the link was clear – even early last year as our collective reaction to COVID-19 played out in real time.