The Mark 2010

Over the next 10 years Canada's astronomers will revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

“We've learnt more in the last 20 years about the Cosmos than we did in the previous 2,000,” says UK astrophysicist Carlos Frenk. So what might the next 10 years hold? Might we find Earth-like planets around other stars? Uncover the very first galaxies in our universe? Or discover giant black holes that are simultaneously gorging themselves on thousands of stars?

New telescopes must be built to answer these awe-inspiring questions. A new generation of astronomers will need to be trained to use them. Chris Pritchet of the University of Victoria, along with a panel of Canadian astronomers, is developing a plan to achieve these goals.
Sponsored by NSERC, the NRC and the CSA, but commissioned by the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA), the objective is to produce a 10-year “Long Range Plan” (LRP) for Canadian astronomy. Divorced from the five-year cycle of politics, the plan will identify which projects in the next decade are critical to the future success of Canadian astronomy.

It would be nice to have a crystal ball to tell us which projects will be the most successful. But of course we don't. The LRP panel will need to make decisions on the best information we have. That won't always be easy.

However, history teaches us some important lessons. The majority of astronomical breakthroughs are made on the best telescope technology available at the time. So if you want to be at the leading edge, it really is go big or go home.

And Canadian astronomy is at the leading edge. Pound for pound, our astronomy is the best in the world. Our top international ranking was confirmed by a 10-year study published in 2005 that showed, on average, each paper published by a Canadian astronomer receives more references than those of any other country.

But the skill and passion of our astronomers clashes against the harsh realities of funding. You can't buy world-calibre telescopes at Walmart. Indeed most new telescope proposals are so large in scale they require international consortiums to fund them. Canada simply cannot afford to be in every consortium or build every new telescope design.

Neither is this exercise purely about science. To measure the economic impact of astronomy we use one statistic: the benefit/cost ratio. For every government dollar spent on astronomy (cost) how much industrial revenue and cost savings are accrued (benefit)? The result, as estimated by the consultants KPMG, is 2:1. We double your money.

From Dynamic Structures in Port Coquitlam, B.C., to Matrox in Dorval, Quebéc, numerous Canadian companies have transformed research interest in astronomy into industrial gains. The intellectual thrill ride of astronomy has even transformed the adrenalin driven theme-park industry. Dynamic Structures adapted technologies it developed for massive telescope domes to high-speed theme-park rides – a multi-billion-dollar industry.

This has the government's attention. Interest exists on Parliament Hill at a level not seen since the 1970s and the birth of the revolutionary Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. The government recently asked our community to prepare a request for a $319 million contribution to the $1.2 billion “Thirty Meter Telescope” (TMT).

A mirror 30 metres in diameter is huge. Imagine three school buses set end to end. Add in the support structure and frame of the telescope and you have over 1,400 tons of glass and steel that need to move with exquisite precision. The glass in the mirror must be aligned to fractions of the wavelength of light – about 1/10,000 of a millimetre. Achieving this is a marvel of engineering.

With a mirror 144 times the area of the Hubble Space Telescope, the TMT will see things that Hubble can only dream of. Imagine seeing the first galaxies in the universe, or analyzing the atmospheres of planets around other stars. And that's just the beginning.

It's no wonder other countries are viewing Canada's share of the project with envy.

While the TMT will transform our knowledge of the visible universe, the “Square Kilometer Array” (SKA) will revolutionize our understanding of the invisible universe. A radio telescope, scheduled to be completed around 2020, the SKA is perhaps the most ambitious astronomical project ever conceived. Costing billions of dollars, and being developed by a world-wide collaboration, the potential of the SKA telescope is staggering. It will be 100 times more sensitive than any steerable radio telescope we have today. Capable of testing Einstein's Theory of Relativity, or detecting the magnetic fields that thread the space between galaxies and stars, you could even use it to watch the CBC from 10 light years away.

While the TMT and SKA are both amazing projects, Canada is also contributing to the eagerly anticipated successor to the Hubble Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope. But even these three telescopes are just the tip of the iceberg of what's coming.

Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Expect Canadian astronomy to stay the very best.