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The world watched breathlessly as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Christmas morning and travelled 1.5 million kilometers to its earth-trailing orbit. Now, we breathe a sigh of relief as the telescope has begun sending us the first images as it aligns and prepares for research, launching a new chapter in humanity’s endeavor to study the universe.

Three research groups within the À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Centre for Astrophysics today found out that they have been awarded over 4000 cpu years of computing time for science analyses over the next year. These resources were awarded following a national competition run by Compute Canada (which is soon to be taken over by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada).

At first glance, astrophysics may not seem to have much in common with tracking and predicting the spread of a global virus. But toÌýProfessor Niayesh Afshordi, the link was clear – even early last year as our collective reaction to COVID-19 played out in real time.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), an international collaboration aiming to unravel the mystery of dark energy and fill in our 3D map of the universe, officially began on May 17.

There is a pattern printed on the fabric of spacetime.

Each piece of the pattern looks, in two dimensions, like a circle surrounded by a ring – as if some cosmic hand had thrown pebbles into the dense early universe, creating splash-points and ripples – then suddenly froze the pond.

Water is essential for life as we know it – water makes up around 70% of the human body, covers about 70% of the planet Earth, has been found in the far reaches of our universe, and is at the centre of our search for habitable planets around other stars.

The black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy is like a giant fire-breathing dragon that spews enormous jets of energetic particles at near light speeds across some 5,000 light years of space.

A new view of this black hole in polarized light, released today by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, will help astrophysicists understand just how those jets are launched by this monstrous black hole.

A team of Canadian researchers led by University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ professorÌýMichel FichÌýhave been awarded $4.9 million in funding from theÌýÌýto build a next generation telescope.

Congratulations to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team, includingÌýProfessor Avery Broderick, for being honoured with theÌýÌýtoday! This award recognizes outstanding achievement by a large consortium within astronomy.

À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Centre for Astrophysics Professor Michel Fich is the Canadian lead for the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope.Ìý Ground has been broken at the site of the build in Chile.Ìý Read full article:Ìý

WCA's Alex Krolewski is awarded an AMTD Fellowship!

Read more:Ìý /stories/four-brilliant-researchers-join-waterloo-fellowships