Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Telescopes

加拿大参与了30米望远镜的建设和运营，总理哈珀宣布将为该项目投入2.435亿美元。我是开发赠款的项目负责人，这些赠款连同核管理委员会的配套资金在建设前期为加拿大创造了约3500万美元的价值。像其他大科学项目一样，TMT将面临一系列复杂的挑战，因为它将发展成为一个功能正常的天文台。我是TMT国际天文台的理事（信托职位）。我已经开始帮助在加拿大组织会议，为我们未来的仪器定位，继续与加拿大的工业合作伙伴保持联系，得到多伦多大学校长的大力支持，并在所有合作伙伴国家有科学朋友帮助加拿大人与他们合作，这对学生和pdf来说是一个很好的机会。***暗能量目前正在导致宇宙加速膨胀。基本上我们对它的物理性质一无所知。我作为成员加入的暗能量光谱仪器合作，正在建造一个巨大的新光谱仪，比以往任何时候都更精确地测量暗能量的特性。同样的数据在银河系结构、星系演化和类星体的整个宇宙历史的天体物理学研究中也有广泛而多样的用途。***暗物质被认为是“冷的”，这意味着它应该被引力束缚在相对低质量的亚晕中，在我们银河系晕中平滑的暗物质分布中绕轨道运行。测试这些次光晕存在的一种实用方法是检查从球状星团中抽出的可见恒星流在其长度上是否有“间隙”。在接下来的几年里，这些数据有望大幅改善，要么证实，要么排除这些差距。在埃尔斯米尔岛上建立一个天文台将有许多好处。它不是在其他国家运作天文台，而是在我们的天文台，它将使天文学家有机会与北方的加拿大人经常接触，向他们传达科学的兴奋，并帮助他们更充分地参与加拿大大学的任何领域的努力。我们初步的站点测试证实了埃尔斯米尔站点的高质量（远远好于加拿大南部的任何站点）。北极有24小时的夜晚，晴朗、寒冷、干燥的天空，适合红外观测。虽然冬天很冷，但它可以与加拿大人轻松工作的萨斯卡通等城市相媲美

Canadian participation in the construction and operation of the Thirty Meter Telescope was confirmed in Prime Minister Harper's announcement of a commitment of $243.5M towards the project. I was PI of the development grants which together with NRC matching funds built up about $35M in value for Canada in the pre-construction phase. Like other Big Science projects TMT will face a series of complex challenges as it is developed into a functioning observatory. I am a governor of the TMT International Observatory (a fiduciary position). I have begun to help organize meetings in Canada to position us for future instrumentation, continue to maintain links with our industrial partners in Canada, have the strong support of the President of the University of Toronto, and have scientific friends in all the partner countries to help Canadians work with them, which is a great opportunity for students and PDFs.***Dark Energy is currently causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. Essentially nothing is known about its physics. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument collaboration, of which I have joined as member, is building a massive new spectrograph to measure the properties of dark energy more precisely than ever before. The same data also has wide and varied uses for astrophysical investigations of the structure of the Milky Way, galaxy evolution and quasars over essentially all their entire cosmic history. ***Dark matter is believed to be “cold”, which means that it should be gravitationally bound into relatively low mass sub-halos orbiting in smoothed-out dark matter distribution in the halo of our own galaxy. A practical way to test for the presence of these sub-halos is to examine whether visible star-streams drawn out of globular clusters have “gaps” along their length. In the next few years the data is expected to improve dramatically and either confirm or rule out such gaps.***Establishing an astronomical observatory on Ellesmere Island would have many benefits. Rather than operate observatories in other countries, it would be in ours and would give astronomers a chance to have regular contact with Canadians in the north and to communicate the excitement of science to them and help them participate more fully in Canadian universities in any field of endeavour. Our rudimentary site testing confirms the high quality of an Ellesmere site (far better than anything in southern Canada). The arctic offers the benefit of 24 hour nights, a clear, cold, dry sky for infrared observations. Although cold in the winter, it is comparable to cities like Saskatoon where Canadians work without difficulty.**