WHERE WILL YOU BE ON APRIL 8, 2024?
Montreal, April 4, 2023 – One year from today, an extremely rare afternoon solar eclipse will be visible from southern Quebec. This spectacular phenomenon occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. During total solar eclipses, the Sun becomes completely hidden for a brief moment. The eclipse occurring on April 8, 2024, […]
2022 CAP Herzberg Medal: Daryl Haggard
The 2022 Canadian Association of Physics (CAP) Herzberg Medal is awarded to Daryl Haggard, McGill professor and member of the Center for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec (CRAQ), in recognition of her leadership role in the development of multimessenger astronomy, and the ground-breaking discovery of the electromagnetic signal accompanying gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars. […]
Discovery of two exoplanets that may be mostly water
Artistic representation of the planetary system of the star Kepler-138. We see Kepler-138 d in the foreground, and closer to the star, Kepler-138 c. These two planets are probably composed mainly of water. The small planet Kepler-138 b is seen transiting in front of the star. A fourth planet, Kepler-138 e, is further away and […]
Finalist for the 2022 Prix de la Relève scientifique: Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo
Associate Professor in the Department of Physics Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo is one of two finalists for the Prix de la Relève scientifique. This is a second nomination for the researcher, following her 2019 nomination. Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo specializes in the study of supermassive black holes and their role in the formation and evolution of galaxies. During her […]
Our CRAQ colleagues, members of the CHIME team, receive the Brockhouse Canada 2022 Award
CHIME is a large, fixed radio telescope with a large collection area, wide bandwidth, and a huge instantaneous field of view (about 200 square degrees, equivalent to the area covered by more than 1000 times the size of the full moon). The CHIME project involves more than fifty scientists and is co-led by the University […]
An extrasolar world covered in water?
With the help of instruments designed partly in Canada, a team of astronomers from the CRAQ have discovered an exoplanet that could be completely covered in water, a target they hope to observe with the Webb telescope soon. Artistic rendition of the exoplanet TOI-1452 b, a small planet that may be entirely covered in a […]
‘Black hole police’ discover a dormant black hole outside our galaxy
A team of international experts, including Université de Montréal Emeritus Professor Anthony Moffat and member of the Center for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec (CRAQ), have found a stellar-mass black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbour galaxy to our own. This team is renowned for debunking several black hole discoveries. “For the […]
A new planet hunter awakens: NIRPS instrument sees first light
The Near InfraRed Planet Searcher (NIRPS) instrument, developed in part at the Université de Montréal and the Université Laval, has successfully performed its first observations. Mounted on ESO’s 3.6-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, NIRPS’s mission is to search for new exoplanets around stars in the solar neighbourhood. This photograph shows the […]
Reunions and Discoveries at the 2022 CRAQ Annual Meeting!
After two years of absence, the annual meetings of the Center for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec are back in person! Bishop’s University received the CRAQ astronomers on May 11, 12 and 13 at the Estrimont Hotel in Orford. At the outset, diversity issues were in the spotlight with a presentation on gender disparities in […]
Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the centre of most galaxies. The […]