Sesquicentennial! Canada's Amazing Astronomy/Space Achievements 1867-2017 ----- John Percy Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics and OISE/UT University of Toronto My History with Schools and STAO
● Faculty of Ed (1963-4)
● Bloor CI (1964-5)
● Member of STAO (1971-)
● Consulting with the Ministry, textbook publishers, STAO projects, giving workshops etc. (1971-)
● STAO Honorary President (1988-91)
● STAO Service Award (1991)
● STAO Jack Bell Award (1999) Why Teach/Learn Astronomy/Science?
Awareness of science Interest in science Understanding of science Appreciation of science Engagement in science Attitude to science Skills in science Science in culture Major Grade Nine Expectation
“Students will … identify scientists, including Canadians, who have made contributions to (astronomy/space).” Specifically: “Assess, on the basis of research, and report on the contributions of Canadian governments, organizations, businesses, and/or individuals...” [also grade six 1.1, SES4U: A2.2, B1] ----- STSE: Connects with history, economics, politics ----- This becomes a typical assignment/assessment: research and report, using all relevant scientific skills, on these contributions, and why they are significant Practical Astronomy/Space
Practical astronomy: “describe various reasons that humankind has had for studying (astronomy/space)...”
5 In the beginning ..... sky motions provided a clock, calendar, and compass for both pre-technological and technological societies. Students can make these observations!
Spacebanter.com 6 Aboriginal Astronomy First Nations people used the sky as a clock, calendar, and compass, and incorporated the sky into their culture and spirituality, as they still do
Cheryl Bartlett, co-developer of Integrative Science 7 Practical Astronomy: to 1850 “by the Mother Country, for the Mother Country” In locations across the country, simple instruments were used for...
● Navigation
● Surveying
● Timekeeping
● Meteorology
● Earth magnetism
● Left: Toronto's local standard for latitude, longitude, and elevation University of Toronto 8 The Toronto Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory (1853) A significant historical building: Canada evolves from scattered colonies to a new country
● To replace a British Admiralty facility, the colonial government decides that it should have a “Canadian” facility for magnetic, timekeeping,
University of Toronto surveying, meteorology etc. 9 Sandford Fleming (1827-1915)
● Surveyor, engineer, businessman, entrepreneur, inventor, university chancellor ● Designed Canada's first stamp, co-founded Royal Canadian Institute and Royal Society of Canada ● Promoted trans-Canada railway and Standard Time 10 Fleming and Standard Time Fleming, a railwayman, recognized the need for Standard Time, and successfully promoted it. [Interesting STSE debate: should we scrap DST?
11 Rex Woods Our Founders
12 The Co-Fathers of Canadian Astronomy Canadians Clarence Chant (1865-1956, left) was “father” of university astronomy; John Plaskett (1865-1941) was “father” of government astronomy research
13 Observatories
“People use observational evidence of the properties of the solar system and the universe...”
16 1935: Canada Has Two of the Three Largest Telescopes in the World! Left: Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, for government research; Right: David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, for university research and education
17 Post-World War II
Servicemen/women return to universities Wartime technologies available for peacetime --- radio → radar --- aerospace --- computing --- geophysics Scientists/engineers who understand them 18 Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton BC
● Opened 1960; houses three radio telescopes
● Important studies of the gas in our Milky Way galaxy ● Engineering labs for National Research Council Canada international facilities, thanks to Canadian expertise
20 Algonquin Radio Observatory
● Opened 1959; includes a 46m (diameter) dish, a solar radio flux monitor ● Dish did important astronomical work 1966-1987
● Now used for geodesy and GPS; pulsar research 21 Astro-canada.ca The Invention of VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry The ARO and DRAO dishes were “virtually” connected, with atomic clocks and high-speed magnetic tapes, to produce a radio telescope 2000 km across
22 National Research Council Canada Astro-canada.ca Interstellar Molecules ARO was used to detect and measure complex molecules between the stars, working with Canadian Nobel Laureate Gerhard Herzberg, showing that complex (prebiological?) molecules form easily and naturally. Astronomy! Chemistry! Biology!
23 Astro-canada.ca National Research Council Canada The Atacama Large Millimetre Array By virtue of its expertise, Canada is now a partner in the finest radio telescope in the world
24 ALMA Observatory The 20th Century --- Optical* Astronomy Transformed --- Observatories move from within cities (TMMO), to just outside cities (DAO, DDO), to further from cities (Palomar), to near-perfect sites such as Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and the High Atacama Desert (Chile)
*visible-light 25 But at the Dunlap Observatory Tom Bolton, a specialist in stars, began to study an X-ray emitting star, especially its motion towards and away from the observer
26 Tom Bolton University of Toronto The First Black Hole
● The star was orbiting a massive unseen object every 6 days – the X-rayy emitter
● The unseen object was a long-theorized black hole – an object whose
NASA gravity was so strong that nothing could escape, not even light
27 Supernova 1987A Discovered by Ian Shelton at the University of Toronto's small Southern Observatory, Feb. 23, 1987; brightest supernova in 400 years
28 YorkRegion.com Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
● Came about, in part, because of political good-luck and cooperation
● The finest telescope (and site) of its 4m class ● World-leading instruments, detectors, and research 29 CFHT Corporation Exoplanets Canadians developed the first indirect way of detecting planets around other stars & are leaders in imaging them
Exoplanets.org
National Research Council Canada 30 TMT: A Societal Issue Canada is a partner in a plan to build a 30-m telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, a sacred site for the indigenous Hawaiians. Assignment: debate the pro's, con's, and suggest a compromise
31 TMT Corporation Canada in Space
“Space exploration has generated valuable knowledge …..
32 Alouette I – 1962 A “topside sounder” to study the ionosphere; Canada was the third country (after the USSR and USA) to build and operate a satellite in space
33 Government of Canada Canadarm and then Dextre
34 Our Most Famous Astronaut Illustrating the value of scientists and engineers communicating with the public
35 NASA The James Webb Space Telescope Canada is a partner in the successor to Hubble (to launch in 2018, behind schedule, over budget) Debate: is it worth it?
36 NASA Canada in Space
“Space exploration has generated valuable knowledge, but at enormous cost”. Is this always true?
37 Professional (and amateur) study of the aurora, and of “space weather”
38 Terence Dickinson Professional (and amateur) study of meteors. Before the Space Age, this was an effective way to study Earth's upper atmosphere.
39 NASA Pelted by Space Dust
● Peter Millman (back right) organized a world-leading study of meteors in Ottawa – some of it by keen amateurs
● There were also cameras, and spectrographs to study the composition of the space dust, and the atmosphere National Research Council Canada
40 Pelted by Space Rocks
● Canada has expertise in meteorites (we have a lot of area for them to fall on!) especially rare ones ● ROM has an especially good collection of carbonaceous chondrites – primitive material with naturally-occuring organic molecules
41 Pelted by Giant Space Rocks
● 1950: prospector Fred Chubb finds this strange lake
● Royal Ontario Museum sends out an expedition, then National Geographic, leading to a national program led by C.S. Beals
● It's a meteorite impact crater, with major implications for extinctions
● Other Canadian craters have been used as Moon and Mars analogues by astronauts
42 Canada and the Apollo Project Apollo 13: how to separate the LEM from the stricken service module
Phil Sullivan, Rod Tennyson, Irving Glass, Barry French, Ben Etkin University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies 43 University of Toronto Mississauga “Lunar labule” where the magnetic properties of moon rocks were studied
44 UTM Micro- and Nano-Satellites Canada's inexpensive “suitcase satellite” and “shoebox satellites” have exceeded expectations; left: MOST; right: one of five BRITEs
45 Canada in Near-Space
● Balloons carry microwave telescopes above 99% of Earth's atmosphere..
● .. to map radiation from the birth of the universe..
● … and from dust in the Milky Way galaxy Blastexperiment.info
47 Theoretical Astrophysics
People use observational evidence of the properties of the solar system and the universe to develop theories to explain their formation and evolution”.
48 Theory and Computation
● For multiple purposes: simulations, now: “big data”: datasets so massive that it needs new computing hardware and software: “machine learning”
University of Toronto 1952 49 Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
● National research institute, hosted by U of Toronto
● Funded by U of Toronto, NSERC*, & Canadian Institute for Advanced Research ● World-class, cost effective, Richard Bond OC FRS under-appreciated Gruber Cosmology Prize 50 CITA Director 1996-2006 *NSERC = Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Vital Statistics of the Universe
● Bond's work involves using sophisticated statistical methods to analyze this microwave “picture” of the baby universe in terms of the universe's fundamental properties today
WMAP: microwave image of the sky 51 Gravitational Waves Harald Pfeiffer's CITA group was part of the Nobel-winning research
52 Contributions by and To Industry
The economic spinoffs of space are well-known, and well-publicized by e.g. CSA. The benefits of astronomy are less well-known.
53 Economic Benefits of Astronomy [according to a KPMG report]
● Training of highly-qualified personnel for academia and industry
● Academic and government astronomers are consulted, and consult widely
● Tech spinoff for telecommunications, computing, optics, geodetics, imaging (including medicine), remote sensing
● Solar flux monitoring helps protect billion-dollar space facilities ● Bottom line: investment return is x1.4 to x10! 54 Astronomy and Industry ● Dynamic Structures, a Canadian company based in BC, has built the enclosures for most of the world's largest telescopes, including Gemini North and South (left) Gemini Observatories ● Parlayed that into expertise building amusement-park rides! 55 Astronomy and Technology Canadian Nobel Laureate Willard Boyle co-invented the CCD detector
56 CHIME: A Unique Radio Telescope In Penticton, will map hydrogen gas in most of the universe, present and past, and study time-variable objects e.g. pulsars. Computer-driven, using cheap GPUs. Big data! Machine learning and AI needed!
57 Dunlap Institute Careers for Astronomers
Research/teaching in universities
Research in government institutes
There are a wide variety of other careers which can use the skills which astronomers learn [see URL on handout] 58 Notable Canadian Astronomy Communicators
Clarence A. Chant Helen Sawyer Hogg Terence Dickinson
59 Ivan Semeniuk Ray Jayardwana Chris Hadfield Possible Assignment: Research and Communication
Develop and present an engaging, non-technical presentation, orally and/or in any appropriate print or electronic form, about an outstanding Canadian astronomer or astronomical achievement.
60 Astronomy Can Be Continued as a Hobby! Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
● Exemplary balance between national and local activities
● Award-winning outreach and communication of astronomy to the public
61 J. Miller Barr (1857-1911) Outstanding, enigmatic Canadian amateur
● Published important papers in prestigious research journals
● Never owned property, married, or attended any astronomical meeting.
● Disabled? Autistic? Female?
62 Societal Issues
–---
Women in Astronomy (or Not)
63 Imported Two Remarkable Canadian Woman Astronomers
Helen Hogg CC, scientist (stars, Victoria Kaspi CC, for her global renown star clusters), writer, leader, in astrophysics, and her celebrated pioneer woman scientist insight into the behaviour of pulsars.64 Exported Expatriate Canadian Women Astronomers
Wendy Freedman, recipient of the Gruber Cosmology Prize Sara Seager, recipient of a for her work in establishing MacArthur “Genius Award” the size scale of the universe. 65 Diversity of Astronomers My colleagues in the Dunlap Institute
66 But significant groups of our population are still under-represented in astronomy as a profession and as a hobby: Aboriginal, Black, rural/remote, Portuguese, among others
67 A Nobel Prize
68 The Solar Neutrino Problem ● It was long “known” that thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen, in the core of the sun, provided its energy
● As a byproduct, strange elementary particles called neutrinos were produced
● They passed unhindered through the Wikipedia.org sun and to Earth 69 The Decades-Old Problem
With the first generation of neutrino “observatories” on Earth, only one-third of the expected number of solar neutrinos were detected.
What was the problem? The theory about the sun? The theory about the neutrino? The neutrino observatories?
70 Solving the Problem ● The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, directed by Art McDonald, and located deep in a Sudbury nickel mine, used a unique FREE heavy water detector
● It detected the total predicted number of neutrinos!
● The theory of neutrinos had to be revised 71 Sudbury Neutrino Observatory The 2015 Reward the magical phone call from the Nobel Committee
72 Queens University And in Last Month's News ...
● Canadian astronomer Maria Drout plays key role in observing the explosive merger of two neutron stars
73 In Canada's sesquicentennial year, astronomy is poised to be as exciting as ever, to scientists and to people young and old
75