Waterloo’s Guide to the Galaxy

From Chile to Japan, physics and astronomy professor Brian McNamara will soon be racking up frequent flyer miles in a quest to better understand our universe.

McNamara and his team are involved with a number of international initiatives where the University of Waterloo is among the very few chosen for exploration projects.

In Chile, McNamara and Dr. Helen Russell, a postdoctoral fellow at Waterloo, will be watching matter that falls into black holes using the world’s most powerful telescope.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-Millimeter Array, otherwise known as ALMA, is comprised of 64 individual radio telescopes. Since a high altitude and dry climate is crucial to millimeter wavelength operations, the telescope is being constructed in the Atacama desert of Northern Chile.

“The telescope will allow us to map out how galaxies and black holes form,” McNamara says. “It will also help us to figure out how stars form, which is something we still don’t fully understand.”

Out of the 900 proposals submitted for the project, the University of Waterloo, McGill University and the University of Victoria were the only projects selected with Canadian principal investigators.

 McNamara is also working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Astro-H, an x-ray telescope that will be launched in 2014.

“This will be the biggest and most complicated telescope that JAXA has ever built,” McNamara says. “It will examine the hottest gases in the universe.”

McNamara is one of 3 members selected to be part of the Astro-H science working group. “We will provide guidance and planning for its science program,” McNamara says. “I’ll be going to Japan at least once a year to work with the team and to help make Astro-H a successful mission.”

McNamara is looking forward to seeing what findings he may make with these two projects. “It’s really exciting to be part of two amazing new new telescopes because discoveries will pour out of them,” McNamara says.
McNamara is also looking forward to including his students into these projects. “It’s gratifying to have the opportunity to involve our students in exciting research using state-of-the art technology.”