Meteroids, asteroids, comets and dwarf planets are some of the smallest bodies in our solar system and are the focus of several recent space missions: Rosetta, Dawn, and New Horizons. Learn about how Pluto, Ceres and these other tiny wonders continue to amaze and surprise us.

Professor James Wadsley is a computational astrophysicist at McMaster University. He makes computer simulations of things that take millions of years to unfold on the sky. He will talk about "the secret lives of galaxies" which demonstrates the evolution of a galaxy in both what we see, and in ways we can't, over the full age of the universe.

In his Perimeter Public Lecture, 2015 Nobel Prize-winner Art McDonald will explain how researchers created an ultra-clean underground lab to obtain otherwise-impossible measurements to study fundamental physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.

http://www.sciencerendezvous.ca/category/toronto/

Astronomer Paul Mortfield will be joining the Hamilton Centre at the April meeting to discuss hunting for Exoplanets! Who can attend: EveryoneFee: FreeReservations: Not required Organized by: RASC - Hamilton CentreLocation: Royal Canadian Legion – Branch 551, 79 Hamilton St. N., Waterdown, ON L0R 2H0

Stars are distant suns. Like our sun, they are born in interstellar clouds of gas and dust, and live long and relatively uneventful lives. In death, sun-like stars swell up into “red giants,” and cast off their outer layers into space, revealing a “white dwarf” core, a million times denser than water. Rare, massive stars die even more spectacularly, exploding as super-novas, and leaving “neutron stars” or “black holes behind. We owe our existence to star life and star death!

We’ll take a tour, from our own backyard out to the edge of the observable Universe using real photographs and images from amateur and professional astronomers, as well as space-borne telescopes. With Chris Vaughan (aka @astrogeoguy), we’ll take time to appreciate the beauty of the images and learn some fascinating science behind each of them. The Aurorae, the Sun, mighty Jupiter and beautiful Saturn, the most beautiful parts of our own galaxy, and our distant neighbours will be delights for the eyes.

Prof. Roberto Abraham, Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto

Speaker: Prof. Cliff Burgess, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University

Long ago Vincent van Gogh said, “The lamps are burning and the starry sky is over it all.” How times have changed with the emergence of light pollution. Today, bright city lights are burning all over the evening sky outshining the greatest night show on earth to the detriment of future generations. If the starlight storytellers are to disclose the tale of the universe, then the night needs to stay alive. This lecture presentation will examine light pollution from its onset; discuss its consequences, and then outline the proactive measures one can take to curb its effects.