news 2023

ESA's Euclid space mission unveils stunning full-colour images of the cosmos, setting a new standard for astronomical imaging precision By Jordan Flemming University Relations Today, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid space mission reveals five of its first full-color images of the cosmos. For the first time, Euclid has harnessed the power to capture razor-sharp astronomical images across a vast expanse of the sky, delving deep into the distant universe.

A Canadian-led team of scientists finds triple the number of galaxies visible in the James Webb Space Telescope's "First Deep Field" image whose distances from Earth can be measured. On July 11, 2022, the very first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was released to the general public.

In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope captured an image of a cluster of thousands of galaxies. Astronomers have measured the distance to Earth of 200 of these galaxies. On July 11, 2022, the world saw the very first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The image is now known as the "Webb Deep Galaxy Field" - a galaxy cluster named SMACS 0723, comprising over 7,000 galaxies! This image has proved an important target for the study of galaxy evolution, as this large number of very distant galaxies tells us a lot about how galaxies formed and evolved in the early Universe.

There is an urgent need to address climate change, making the development of sustainable energy alternatives more important than ever. While proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have shown great promise for energy production, particularly in the transportation industry, there is a long-standing problem with their durability and cost.

Antimatter is tied up in one of the world's greatest mysteries. Physics predicts that when we create matter, we also create equal amounts of antimatter. Yet there seems to be almost no antimatter in our universe, a fact that has long puzzled physicists. Now, physicists at Simon Fraser University, the University of Calgary, TRIUMF, the University of British Columbia, York University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology and research institutions from around the world have just answered a long-standing question that will lead to a deeper understanding of antimatter: Does it fall down?

Science, Health & Technology Prof. Takamasa Momose First measurement of the force of the Earth's gravity on antimatter, which leverages a built-in-Vancouver antimatter gravity detector. In the world's first observation of the effect of gravity on antimatter, a group of researchers from Canada and around the world have made an important confirmation: like matter, antimatter does indeed 'fall downwards'.

News Release - Discovery of two potential Polar Ring galaxies suggests these stunning rare clusters might be more common than previously believed. KINGSTON, Ontario - A group of international astronomers, including researchers from Queen's University, has identified two potential polar ring galaxies, according to results published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Using laser light, researchers have developed the most robust method currently known to control individual qubits made of the chemical element barium. The ability to reliably control a qubit is an important achievement for realizing future functional quantum computers. This new method, developed at the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), uses a small glass waveguide to separate laser beams and focus them four microns apart, about four-hundredths of the width of a single human hair.

Waterloo scientists guide the decades-long journey for the XRISM astronomy satellite to demystify black hole feedback dynamics By Jordan Flemming University Relations In a quest to decipher the enigmatic power of black holes and the intricate role they play in galaxy growth and structure - Waterloo scientists are gearing up for a much-anticipated launch.

Université de Montréal scientists recreate and compare molecular languages at the origin of life - opening new doors for the development of novel nanotechnologies. Two molecular languages at the origin of life have been successfully recreated and mathematically validated, thanks to pioneering work by Canadian scientists at Université de Montréal.

Science, Health & Technology Alex Walls It's not the nicest description for a human, but a two-faced star has been identified by astronomers in a first for its kind. With one side composed fully of hydrogen and the other of helium, the star has been dubbed Janus after the two-faced Roman god of transition, and described in a new study published in Nature today.

Researchers discover a single shape that tiles the plane aperiodically without reflection By Joe Petrik Cheriton School of Computer Science Just months ago, an international team of four that includes Cheriton School of Computer Science Craig Kaplan discovered a single shape that tiles the plane - an infinite, two-dimensional surface - in a pattern that can never be made to repeat.

Science, Health & Technology Alex Walls Using part of the Milky Way as an antenna, researchers have found evidence for gravitational waves that undulate over periods of years to decades by measuring changes in the tick of 'cosmic clocks', according to new research. The observations, published today in a suite of papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters , were collected over 15 years by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontiers Center (PFC), a collaboration of more than 190 scientists including UBC astronomers.

An international team of scientists have used data collected by the NASA / / James Webb Space Telescope to detect for the first time ever a molecule known as methyl cation (CH3+), located in the protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. They accomplished this feat with interdisciplinary expert analysis, including key input from laboratory spectroscopists.

Using the Canadian NIRISS instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope, astrophysics PhD candidate Louis-Philippe Coulombe has mapped the atmosphere of the intriguing exoplanet WASP-18 b. There's an intriguing exoplanet out there - 400 light-years out there - that is so tantalising that astronomers have been studying it since its discovery in 2009.

Understanding how animals make their way around in the world helps determine things humans are doing that might influence them Earth's magnetic field, generated by the flow of molten iron in the planet's inner core, extends out into space and protects us from cosmic radiation emitted by the Sun. It is also, remarkably, used by animals like salmon, sea turtles and migratory birds for navigation.

A new discovery about the structure of melanin has brought scientists one step closer to developing a new, potentially ultra-protective sunscreen derived from a biological substance found in nearly all organisms. Researchers from McGill's Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with The Ohio State University and the University of Girona, have announced a major advance in understanding the fundamental structure of melanin and one of its components that turns light into heat, protecting the body from sun damage.

Science, Health & Technology Alex Walls A Canadian-led research team has doubled the number of repeating fast radio bursts, adding 25 new 'cosmic probes'. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are cosmic radio signals: extremely short, energetic pulses of radio emission emanating from space. They're an astronomical mystery, as scientists aren't sure exactly what causes them and where they come from.

Astronomers have successfully launched a balloon-borne telescope that has begun capturing images of the universe on its first flight above the Earth's atmosphere. The Super Pressure Balloon-Borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) was flown to the edge of space by a helium-filled NASA scientific balloon the size of a football stadium.

An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting the -cosmic dawn the era after the Big Bang when stars first ignited and galaxies began to bloom. A team of scientists from across North America, Europe, and South Africa has doubled the sensitivity of a radio telescope called the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array ( HERA ).