This week Canada announced it will contribute to the European Space Agency’s Ariel mission. A first mission of its kind, the Ariel space telescope will launch in 2029 to study the atmospheres of distant exoplanets outside of our solar system. Up to 12 Canadian astronomers, including McGill University experts, will be at the front row of the mission, with privileged access to its data. (Canadian Space Agency)
Published on: 25 Jul 2023
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have named the winners of the first Deep Space Food Challenge, an international contest that sought novel food technologies for future astronaut missions, as well as for use in resource-scarce regions on Earth.
Celebrity chefs Martha Stewart and Lynn Crawford joined former astronauts Scott Kelly and Chris Hadfield in making the announcements in a video aired by NASA on its television channel on November 15th.
Category:
Published on: 16 Nov 2021
Innovative food production technologies for edible crickets and microalgae launch two McGill student-led projects into the semifinals of the NASA/CSA Deep Space Food Challenge.
Published on: 11 Nov 2021
McGill team awarded contract to advance potential Canadian contribution for LiteBIRD space telescope
November 7, 2019 (MONTREAL, Quebec) - A team of researchers from the McGill Space Institute has secured a Phase 0 contract with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to advance a proposed Canadian contribution – including technology deliverables and scientific know-how -- for the LiteBIRD (Light satellite for the studies of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection) mission.
Category:
Published on: 26 Nov 2019
Two McGill University astronomers have assembled a “fingerprint” for Earth, which could be used to identify a planet beyond our Solar System capable of supporting life.
Category:
Published on: 28 Aug 2019
Researchers demonstrate for the first time the potential of existing technology to directly detect and characterize life on Mars and other planets. The study, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, used miniaturized scientific instruments and new microbiology techniques to identify and examine microorganisms in the Canadian high Arctic — one of the closest analogs to Mars on Earth.
Category:
Published on: 19 Jan 2018
The temperature in the permafrost on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian high Arctic is nearly as cold as that of the surface of Mars. So the recent discovery by a McGill University led team of scientists of a bacterium that is able to thrive at –15ºC, the coldest temperature ever reported for bacterial growth, is exciting. The bacterium offers clues about some of the necessary preconditions for microbial life on both the Saturn moon Enceladus and Mars, where similar briny subzero conditions are thought to exist.
Category:
Published on: 22 May 2013
