'Every available resource'
Fundraising for victims
More than law enforcers
Vote opposes Canada tariffs
Canadians leave Cuba 
Moment of silence held
7,000 protest deaths in Iran
Social media on trial
Manatee pulled from drain
Nettwerk group nets $300M
FDA rejects mRNA flu vax
Submarine contract this year
Local signs pro contract
Vees seeking historic wins
Warriors add defence
Kardashian 'into' Hamilton
Lively, Baldoni face to face
Dawson's Creek star dies
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Skywatching
Measuring the universe through distance and speed
At this point, we don't know how big the universe is. However, a question we can address is how big is the chunk of universe we can see. That is basically a...
The life and death of stars
In the year 1054, observers around the world noticed a new star in the sky. Over days, it brightened until it was visible during the day and then, during the...
The attraction of the magnetic universe
Our observatory, along with several others around the world, is involved in a project called GMIMS (pronounced gee-mims). GMIMS stands for Global Magneto-Ionic...
The science behind solar storms and the Northern Lights
From Penticton, the recent aurora looked like a hollow tower, made of finely combed fibres, with us looking up the middle. There were patches of green and one...
Different rules for different things in the universe making understand them difficult
Imagine an Alice in Wonderland realm where things flicker into existence, then vanish again. Where it is hard to find out exactly where anything is and where...
Despite possible similarities in body chemistry, aliens may not look like us
In a universe that must contain an enormous number of planets, with a good fraction of them “Earthlike", it is almost certain we are not alone. That...
Voyager 1 is our loneliest space pioneer
The most distant emissary we have sent into space is Voyager 1, now around 24.3 billion kilometres away. It is now well outside the Solar System, travelling in...
Observing the radio universe
A few months ago, a strange problem arose at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, near Penticton. There were periodic bursts of intense interference...
Facination with 'magical' solar eclipses
The events of April 8 show solar eclipses are very special to us. It is not just a matter of the comparatively rare event of the Moon passing in front of the...
Figuring out what occurred in the galaxy before the Big Bang
For much of our history, we have conceived the universe as something eternal, in which everything we know of comes and goes. Then, in the first half of the 20th...
Measurements of radiation around Earth marked early days of Space Age
The Space Age began on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the Earth's first artificial satellite. At the time, the Cold War was in full swing,...
Solutions sought to measuring speed and distance travelled by planets in space
Our knowledge of the expansion of the universe is fundamental to understanding how it formed and how it has and is evolving. That expansion was first measured...
How radar helps us see what's in space
For most of our history, astronomy has been a strictly spectator sport. We observed and studied the light and other radiation that objects in the cosmos...
The tricky job of creating a calendar that reflects earth's actual rotation
This year is a leap year. We have added a day to February in order to keep the date in step with the seasons and the annual motion of the Sun. Here is how we...
Avoiding the fate of the dinosaurs
Around 65 million years ago, an asteroid 10 kilometres to 15 kilometres in diameter hit the Earth close to what is now the Yucatan Peninsula. Already stressed...
Fast radio bursts raise questions about highly magnetized star
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense bursts of radio emissions, just milliseconds duration. They were discovered by accident. A large radio telescope, which...
The impact of stellar flares
These days most of us are familiar with the term “space weather.” But “solar weather" is a more accurate term because what we mean by...
A look at Titan, Saturn's largest moon
Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini and Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens both made detailed observations of Saturn and its moons. Huygens discovered Titan,...
Exploring Venus, the volcano planet
Venus has often been referred to as the Earth's twin. It is the second planet out from the Sun. We live on the third. It is around the same size as Earth,...
Why some stars 'wink' in the night sky
Imagine what it must have been like for ancient sky watchers when they saw a star slowly winking at them. They were familiar with stars twinkling and planets...
