Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Telescopes

加拿大总理哈珀宣布为该项目提供2.435亿美元的承诺，证实了加拿大参与了30米望远镜的建设和运营。我是开发赠款的PI，加上NRC的配套基金，在建设前阶段为加拿大创造了约3500万美元的价值。与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发挥作用的天文台。我是TMT国际天文台(受托职位)的理事。我已经开始帮助在加拿大组织会议，为我们未来的仪器设备做好准备，继续与我们在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拥有科学朋友来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的膨胀加速。从本质上讲，人们对它的物理知识一无所知。我作为成员加入了暗能量光谱仪器合作组织，该组织正在建造一台巨大的新光谱仪，以比以往任何时候都更精确地测量暗能量的性质。同样的数据在银河系结构、星系演化和类星体基本上整个宇宙历史的天体物理研究中也有广泛和不同的用途。 暗物质被认为是冷的，这意味着它应该在引力的作用下被束缚在相对低质量的亚晕中，在我们银河系的光晕中以平滑的暗物质分布绕轨道运行。测试这些次光晕是否存在的一个实用方法是检查从球状星团中拉出的可见星流是否在其长度上有“缝隙”。在接下来的几年里，预计数据将大幅改善，要么证实，要么排除这种差距。 在埃尔斯米尔岛上建立一个天文台将有很多好处。它不是在其他国家运营天文台，而是在我们的国家运营天文台，这将使天文学家有机会与北部的加拿大人定期接触，向他们交流科学的兴奋，并帮助他们更充分地参与加拿大大学的任何努力领域。我们的初步现场测试证实了埃尔斯米尔县的高质量(远远好于加拿大南部的任何地方)。北极提供了24小时夜间的好处，晴朗、寒冷、干燥的天空适合进行红外观测。尽管冬天很冷，但它可以与萨斯卡通这样的城市相提并论，在那里，加拿大人工作起来没有困难。

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.