Wednesday, May 28, 2003

A "most" promising space first for Canada

On June 30, Canada's first space telescope will be launched. The suitcase sized satellite, MOST, will have a small telescope that will use the variations in starlight to answer questions like these:

Can we understand our Sun in the context of other stars? By putting a birthdate on the oldest stars in the solar neighbourhood, can we set a limit on the age of the Universe? How do strong magnetic fields affect the physics of other stars and our own Sun? What are mysterious planets around other stars really like? How did the atoms which make up our planet and our very bodies escape from stars in the first place?

Here's an introduction to the project from the University of B.C.'s website on the space telescope. Sorry, the Province's recent story on MOST, which will be launched into space June 30 on an old Russian ICBM, is not online.