Observations of the microwave background, the left-over heat from the big bang, are snapshots of the universe only three hundred thousand years after the big bang. These observations have answered many of the questions that have driven cosmology for the past few decades: How old is the universe? What is its size and shape? What is the composition of the universe? How do galaxies emerge?

Speaker: Professor Jo Bovy, Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Galactic Astrophysics in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department of the University of Toronto

Ontario Science Centre's Dr. Rachel Ward-Maxwell presents an interactive talk for Science Literacy Week! Witness the power of a hurricane on Jupiter, the devilish dust storms on Mars and the wicked winds of Neptune as you learn about the wildest weather in our Solar System.

Rachel Ward-Maxwell, Researcher-Programmer in Astronomy and Space Sciences from Ontario Science Centre, presents "Celestial Storms."

Although we are still decades away from discovering life on worlds outside of our own solar system, much progress is being made today to identify the best potential candidates for hosting such life. In this talk Ryan Cloutier will discuss what we currently know about these so-called exoplanets and how we know it. He will then highlight the steps that will be taken in the not-so-distant future to further our understanding of exoplanetary atmospheres and potentially even their surface conditions using extreme telescopes.

Fossils show us that millions of years ago giant reptiles roamed the Earth. Yet, where are they now?

Are we standing on the brink of a new scientific revolution that will radically change our views on space, time, and gravity? In most circumstances, the theories of Einstein and Newton adequately describe gravity, but on cosmological scales, big questions arise, particularly surrounding the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Have you ever wondered whether we're alone in the cosmos? For thousands of years, we have only been able to speculate. Now, astronomers searching for planets capable of supporting life are making daily progress toward answering this incredibly compelling question. Join me for a non-technical explanation of the science behind the search for Earth-like planets and a summary of the latest results. Presented by: Dr. Michael Reid - Associate Professor of Astronomy from the University of Toronto.

It has been a little over 20 years that we know there are planets around other stars and 10 years that we know there are solid planets around other stars with the first super-Earth discovered: GJ876d. In the last few years, we have also learned that super-Earths and mini-Neptunes are the most common planet in the galaxy, improving our chances to find another habitable planet. To study these planets, we base our knowledge on what we have learned about the Earth and our planet neighbours, and test these ideas on these new and sometimes exotic planets. Dr.

Imagine the air cools, the sky darkens, the birds stop singing and the stars come out at noon. For a lucky few who have been in the path of a total solar eclipse their imagination becomes reality as they experience one of nature’s most spectacular events.