UW astronomer at forefront of cosmic research
A new telescope with a wider view of the sky will unlock secrets of the universe, professor says
WATERLOO REGION — University of Waterloo astronomer Michel Fich is leading an international team of scientists building the next generation of telescopes to unravel fundamental questions about the universe.
“What is dark matter?” said Fich. “It is some kind of a force of nature, but we don’t know what it is.”
With the help of a $4.9 million grant from Ottawa announced last week, Fich will use data from a new telescope located high in the Chilean Andes to find out.
“The current view is dark matter are some particles that create gravity, but we don’t know what those particles are,” said Fich. “That’s why we call it dark matter.”
The other big question deals with dark energy. It does the opposite of dark matter, and produces antigravity.
And then there are neutrinos — the subatomic particles pro- duced inside stars that travel through the universe at the speed of light. There are three different kinds of neutrinos, and several have passed through your body while reading this sentence.
“We know a lot about neutrinos, but we don’t know what the mass of neutrinos are,” said Fich. “Neutrinos are well known but not well understood particles.”
Art McDonald of Queen’s University won the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics for his research on neutrinos. McDonald was a lead scientist at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, which was built deep inside a hard rock mine in the Northern Ontario city. McDonald discovered that neutrinos have mass.
“We have the best place in the world. It is higher than base camp on Mount Everest.” MICHEL FICH ASTRONOMER, UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
But so far, nobody has been able to measure the mass for the three types of neutrinos.
“We are going to do way better at constraining the mass of neutrinos than has been done in previous experiments,” said Fich. “It is astronomy but it is also fundamental physics.”
The new telescope is being built in Germany. The first piece arrived on the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile on March 8. At 5,600 metres (18,370 feet) above sea level it will be the second highest structure in the world. The highest is a Japanese observatory located next door.
“We have the best place in the world,” said Fich. “It is higher than base camp on Mount Everest.”
It should be completely assembled and collecting data at the end of next year.
There are 12 Canadian universities involved under Fich’s leadership.
Cornell University in New York state is taking the lead on development of the new telescope. It is called the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope. Young is a Cornell alum who donated $11 million to the project. The total cost is about $50 million.
It is a radio-telescope with a unique design that allows Fich and others to collect information on cosmic microwaves left over from the origins of the universe — the Big Bang. It will survey all of the visible sky every night. Conventional telescopes focus on one small part of the visible sky.
“We are able to see a really large part of the sky, on the order of a 100 times larger part of the sky in an instant,” said Fich.
The new telescope will cost about $50 million to complete. If the provincial governments in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. match Ottawa’s funding, the Canadian team will have a 20 per cent stake in the telescope. Of the 10 scientific projects the new telescope will be used for, three are led by Canadians.
“We are getting really good bang for the buck,” said Fich.