NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics

• Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) located in Victoria, BC since 1916, the DAO includes two telescopes: the 1.8-m optical/near-infrared Plaskett Telescope, named after Observatory founder John Stanley Plaskett, and the 1.2-m telescope with its McKellar spectrograph.
• Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) located in Penticton, BC since 1960, the DRAO includes three telescopes: the 26-m John A. Galt Telescope, a single-dish antenna that can observe at 408 MHz to 6.6 GHz, the Synthesis Telescope, a suite of seven 9-m diameter antennas combined electronically into a single telescope that can observe at 408 MHz and 1420 MHz, and the Solar Flux Monitor that provides long-term 10.7 cm data of the Sun for "space weather" applications.
• Canadian Astronomical Data Centre (CADC) is a data archive, management and delivery organization that provides access to data from astronomical telescopes, as well as advanced data products from several astronomical surveys. Based in the DAO offices in Victoria, BC, the CADC also supports the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomical Research (CANFAR), a distributed processing solution for large astronomical datasets.

• Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) is the world's largest observatory, ALMA consists of sixty-six 12-m or 7-m diameter antennas combined electronically into a single telescope that can observe from 86 GHz to 950 GHz. ALMA is located on the Llano de Chajnantor in northern Chile at 5000 metre altitude. Beginning scientific operations in 2012, Canada is a partner in ALMA with 19 other countries.
• Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is a 3.6-m optical/infrared telescope located atop the summit of Mauna Kea: a 4200 metre altitude, dormant volcano located on the island of Hawai'i. Becoming operational in 1979, CFHT has consistently provided versatile and state-of-the-art optical astronomical observing to its users.
• Gemini Observatory consists of twin 8.1-m diameter optical/infrared telescopes located in Hawai'i and Chile, two of the best observing sites on the planet. With northern and southern locations, Gemini's telescopes can collectively access the entire sky. Gemini began scientific operations in 2000. Canada is a partner in Gemini with the US, Argentina, Australia and Brazil.

• Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a collaboration between Canada, the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, Japan, China, India and Yale University to build the world's largest and most advanced optical/infrared telescope. With a 30-m diameter mirror, TMT will have ten times the light-gathering ability of the largest optical telescopes currently in existence and produce images ten times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope. Canada is a partner in TMT through the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA). Canada will be responsible for two critical components: the innovated telescope enclosure and the adaptive optics system that will correct atmospheric distortions. Groundbreaking for TMT construction will take place in 2014.
• Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an international effort to build the world's largest radio telescope. Using a network of thousands of antennas distributed up to 3000 kilometres apart, astronomers will use the SKA to: study galaxies, dark energy, black holes and the first stars; test Einstein's theory of gravity; and search for the molecules that are thought to be the building blocks of life. SKA will be built in the southern hemisphere, with antennae stretching from southern Africa to eastern Australia and New Zealand. Construction will begin in 2018, with full operations expected in 2025. NRC formally represents Canada in the SKA project, and is one of several Canadian institutions actively involved in SKA research and development.
• Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a novel radio telescope being built at DRAO in Penticton, BC, by the University of British Columbia, McGill University and the University of Toronto, with funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. Slated to begin operations in 2017, CHIME aims to map the large-scale distribution of neutral hydrogen gas at a time when the universe was 3-to-7 billion years old. By mapping about half the sky each day as the earth turns, CHIME will detect subtle, periodic fluctuations in the mass density of the universe that can be used to understand the nature of dark energy -- a mysterious form of energy that is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

NRC Herzberg is developing leading ground-based instrumentation, to help build and improve the tools we need to learn more about the universe.

• Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS) is a large survey using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) designed to explore the structure and content of the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and its close neighbour, the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). To date, more than 300 hours of CFHT time have been used to resolve millions of stars in these galaxies using CFHT's 340 megapixel imager, MegaCam.
• Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) is a CFHT large program to image the Virgo cluster of galaxies — the dominant mass concentration in the local universe and the largest galaxy collection within 100 million light years — from its core to its virial radius. This 100 square degree region (equivalent in area to about 500 full moons) is being mapped in five optical filters using MegaCam. The NGVS team is comprised of about 45 scientists at research institutes across Canada and the world.
• Soul of Lupus with ALMA (SOLA) is a large program to carry out a comprehensive study of the Lupus Molecular Clouds and their star formation processes. This ambitious project will address several key questions about star formation, including the role played by angular momentum, magnetic fields, and jets or outflows. The consortium is composed of a large team of scientists from most of the countries involved in the ALMA project, including several NRC Herzberg staff members.
• Disk Emission via a Bias-free Reconnaissance in the Infrared/Submillimetre (DEBRIS) project is a key project with ESA's Herschel Space Observatory to observe 450 nearby stars and statistically understand debris disks, the remnants of extrasolar planetary systems. DEBRIS results include the detection of a broad range of morphologies in resolved disks, the discovery of a correlation between debris disks and low-mass planets, and the detection of a debris disk around Fomalhaut C, a recently discovered companion to the bright star Fomalhaut.
• JCMT Legacy Survey (JLS) is a suite of seven coordinated large-scale sub-surveys to use the new instruments of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawai'i to study stellar debris disks (Survey Of Nearby Stars), Galactic star-forming regions (Gould Belt Survey and JCMT Galactic Plane Survey) nearby galaxies (Nearby Galaxies Survey and SCUBA-2 All-Sky Survey), and galaxies in the early universe (Cosmology Legacy Survey). Observations are being obtained using SCUBA-2, the JCMT's submillimetre continuum imager, and HARP, its 345 GHz focal plane receiver array. The JLS is coordinated jointly by Canada, the UK and the Netherlands.
• Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) Campaign is a project to use GPI, the next generation adaptive optics instrument on Gemini, to image extrasolar planets orbiting nearby stars. The GPI Exoplanet Survey team, including several NRC Herzberg staff members, was selected to carry out an 890-hour survey campaign from 2014 to 2016 to search for and characterize exoplanets around 600 stars. GPI will produce the first comprehensive survey of giant exoplanets at respective distances to where such planets exist in our own solar system.
• The Outer Solar System Origins Survey is an imaging survey using 400 hours of observing time with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope's mosaic imaging camera and will map out the structure of the region of the solar system beyond Neptune. This survey, a continuation of the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS), will discover over 500 new Kuiper belt objects whose orbits and physical properties will provide the information needed to better understand how planets form.