News archive - 2019

Thursday, October 31, 2019

DESI opens its 5,000 eyes to capture the colours of the cosmos

by Mike Brown on October 28, 2019
taken from Inside the Perimeter

A new instrument mounted atop a telescope in Arizona has aimed its robotic array of 5,000 fibre-optic “eyes” at the night sky to capture the first images showing its unique view of galactic light.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Event Horizon Telescope team awarded 2020 Breakthrough Prize

Breakthrough Prize trophy; breakthroughprize.org

The 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team, of which Dr. Avery Broderick is a member. The citiation reads "For the first image of a supermassive black hole, taken by means of an Earth-sized alliance of telescopes."

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

A first look at laser-cooled ions

Eight individual ions levitating in a near-perfect vacuum

The atomic ions here are laser-cooled close to the absolute zero temperature (at a few milliKelvin above the absolute zero temperature of -273.15 deg C or 0 Kelvin).

Pictured left: eight individual Ytterbium ions levitating less than 10 microns apart from each other in a nearly perfect vacuum

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Physics & Astronomy welcomes major award winning first-year student

By Natalie Quinlan
University Relations

Four exceptionally talented students are making their way to Waterloo with a prestigious scholarship in tow.

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

University issues statement on the Thirty Meter Telescope

Many of us in the Waterloo community are watching with great concern the developments in Hawaii around the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

The Waterloo physics community has been in dialogue over the last several days with colleagues from around the world. We have heard views expressed on our own campus from students and faculty members. Though many of us have deeply held beliefs about what should happen next, it is our very strong view that it is primarily up to Hawaiians to decide how - or if - they will “share the Mauna”, as eloquently expressed by master navigator Kalepa Baybayan in July.