The quest for ever-clearer views of the sky has driven astronomers to put telescopes in some pretty remote places, ranging from arid deserts, to the tops of mountains, and even the middle of Antarctica. Professor Keith Vanderlinde talks about his work with the 10m South Pole Telescope, and the science that convinced him to undertake an eleven-month “winterover” position working on-location with the telescope.

The night sky is shared by everyone on Earth and every culture has its own experience with the stars and sky. In this special AstroTour event, you’ll explore the night sky from the perspective of the Indigenous people of North America.

As a child, Quebec native Pauline Gagnon dreamed of understanding what the universe was really made of. As an adult, she studied exactly that, working at the largest experiment ever built, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. In her role as a Senior Research Scientist, based at Indiana University and working at CERN, she searched for dark matter particles in the decays of the famous Higgs boson, in the form of hypothetical particles called dark photons.

Quench your thirst for astronomy! On Friday, November 10, at The Great Hall! It'll be another fun evening of pints, astronomy news, mind-expanding talks, games, prizes, and Dunlap merchandise for sale! Plus, following all the talks, there will be plenty of time for you to have all your cosmic questions answered by astronomers from the University of Toronto.

Most of our Universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy, but so far scientists have had a hard time detecting or explaining them. PhD student Alexandra Terrana explores some of the big open questions in cosmology, what dark matter and energy are, and how an alternative theory of gravity might solve these mysteries. Chronicles of a Peculiar Universe is a series of talks presented in collaboration with York University's Faculty of Science.

Since 1995 thousands of planets have been detected orbiting other stars. Many of these worlds could possibly contain liquid water and even life. Professor Paul Delaney describes our current understanding of exoplanets, the ongoing search for them and the implications for the search for life. Chronicles of a Peculiar Universe is a series of talks presented in collaboration with York University's Faculty of Science.

Most galaxies enjoy the company of other galaxies and organize into various shapes known as the "cosmic web." Many of them also like to spin - creating beautiful disks of stars and gas. PhD student George Conidis examines our own galaxy, The Milky Way, and its friends to better understand the social habits of disk galaxies and how they spin. Chronicles of a Peculiar Universe is a series of talks presented in collaboration with York University's Faculty of Science.

One century following Einstein’s prediction of spacetime disturbances and gravitational waves, the laser-enabled special detectors LIGO achieved the most accurate measurement ever made by humans across science and engineering and revealed to us the gravitational-wave signals produced by the most powerful collisions of black holes in the universe.

See the milky way and galaxies with the unaided eye. Point your telescope to find the many dim deep space objects that sprinkle the sky. Away from Toronto's light polution, there is so much to see. We observe from the Long Sault Conservation area, an hour outside of Toronto. We meet around dusk once a month in the parking lot for views only seen in dark sky conditions. We hold this event on the first clear night of our week-long window, so the date and time are determined closer to.

From reading article comments online, many people seem to think that scientists are constantly discovering “water on Mars.” This talk summarizes of our current understanding of water in the Martian past and present, and the implications of that for the habitability of the Red Planet.