Physics and Space Science News and Events

Physics and Space Science in the media

2016-10-12

Magnetic stars responsible for LIGO’s “heavy” stellar-mass black holes?

RMC research assistant (and Queen’s PhD candidate) Zsolt Keszthelyi, in collaboration with RMC Professor of Physics and Space Science Gregg Wade and an international team of collaborators, propose a novel mechanism - strong magnetic fields at the surfaces of hot stars - leading to the formation of “heavy” stellar-mass black holes as detected by the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) collaboration in the source GW150914. Their results were recently featured in the popular press.

ADS-B receiver launch

The Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) is leading the way in research for tracking aircraft from space. The reception of aircraft-generated Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) signals by satellites in low Earth orbit will allow surveillance of aircraft over regions not covered by radar such as oceans and the high Arctic. An RMC ADS-B receiver is scheduled for launch on the CanX-7 nanosatellite (10 × 10 × 30 cm, 3.5 kg) in 2016 as a technology demonstrator for space-based monitoring of air traffic. Read article "Tracking Planes Over the Ocean Is About to Get Easier"

COM DEV RMC UTIAS/SFL DRDC-Ottawa NSERC - Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment

Read the CanX-7 Story in the Kingston Whig-Standard

2016-10-11

Read the CanX-7 Story " RMC helps put satellite into space" in the Kingston Whig-Standard

RMC helps put satellite into space

By Steph Crosier, Kingston Whig-Standard

CanX-7 Satellite Mission

2016-09-27

The reception of aircraft-generated Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) signals by satellites in low Earth orbit will allow surveillance of aircraft over regions not covered by radar, such as oceans and the high Arctic.

An RMC ADS-B receiver was launched into a 690 km sun synchronous orbit on 26 September 2016 on the CanX-7 nanosatellite (10 × 10 × 34 cm, 3.5 kg) as a technology demonstrator for space-based monitoring of air traffic.

The satellite also contains a 4 m2 drag sail that will demonstrate accelerated deorbiting.

The ADS-B aircraft tracking receiver will be tested over a six-month period at which point the drag sail will be deployed.

For more information, please visit the Space Flight Laboratory.

CanX-7 nanosatellite

CanX-7 with drag-sail deployedCanX-7 with drag-sail deployed

 
 
ADS-B data from CanX-7 showing aircraft over the North Atlantic, 28 Sept 2016 (map © 2016 Google, data © Government of Canada)

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