Daniel Tamayo explains how a string of recent discoveries have revealed a surprising process that has transformed the surfaces of distant moons of the giant planets. The journey involves a violent history of crashing satellites and up-close images from the Cassini spacecraft. What's Out There? Lectures in Astronomy presented in collaboration with the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo takes us on an exploration of our surroundings, from the local solar system to distant galaxies.

Dan Falk In the autumn of 1609, a new optical device found its way into the hands of an ambitious Italian mathematician, Galileo Galilei. Before long, Galileo aimed this new invention, the telescope, at the night sky – and what he saw would change the world forever. As it happens, Shakespeare and Galileo were born in the same year – but is there anything tangible to connect Galileo’s discoveries to Shakespeare’s plays? In this illustrated talk, journalist Dan Falk will explore the Shakespeare-Galileo connection.

In 1889 Van Gogh, contemplating the night sky, created one of the most famous images conveying humanity’s captivation with the cosmos. Over a century later, as quantum theories brush alluringly close to unravelling the secrets of the Universe, are we any further in understanding our existence? Join Spectrum as they use music to explore awe-inspiring questions with a hand-picked ensemble including celebrated Trumpeters Lina Allemano and Jim Lewis, enveloped by projections and immersive staging.

Speaker: Miranda Jarvis From a dark enough place, the Milky Way can be seen as a bright swath of stars across the sky. It is a galaxy composed of billions of stars, amongst which our sun is just one. What shape is the Milky Way? What is it made of? How does it behave? And how did we learn all of this? Miranda Jarvis will provide answers to all of these questions and more as we tour our galaxy and some of the exciting things in it.

In a world of ever larger and more expensive telescopes, amateur astronomers often pass over the wonder above them that can only be seen with the most complex yet readily available optical instrument of them all – the unaided eye. From comets to crepuscular rays and from the northern lights to noctilucent clouds, there is an entire universe waiting, both literally and figuratively before your eyes.

Showtimes: 7:00pm and 8:00pm In recent years with the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope and improvement in planet detection techniques there has been an explosion in the number of planets discovered outside our solar system. For the first time ever we are able to explore questions such as “are there any habitable planets out there?”, and “where should we look for life?”. This planetarium show will explain where the best chances currently lie for finding life elsewhere in the universe and highlight some of the noteworthy exoplanets discovered to date.

Kendrick Smith, Cosmologist, Perimeter Institute Revolutionary progress has been achieved in the science of cosmology over the past 30 years. Powerful experiments, made possible by new technologies, have transformed our understanding of the universe. We have unveiled the laws of physics that govern time and space on the grandest scales, from the big bang to present day.

Speaker: Michael Watson, RASC (Unattached)

Speaker: Keith Jarvie, Ph.D., Mississauga Centre RASC