Grants and Contributions

NASA's Pandora mission is a pioneering astrophysics project designed to study the atmospheres of at least 20 exoplanets and their host stars. Selected as part of NASA's inaugural call for Pioneer mission concepts, Pandora is a small satellite mission slated to launch in early 2026. The mission's primary objective is to disentangle the atmospheric signals of distant planets from the light of their parent stars. To achieve this, Pandora will conduct long-duration observations, using a 0.45-meter telescope to simultaneously capture visible and near-infrared light from star systems as planets transit. This multiwavelength approach will allow scientists to better understand stellar activity and its impact on exoplanet atmosphere measurements, identifying elements like hydrogen and water or the presence of clouds. The data gathered by Pandora will complement observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, enhancing the search for habitable worlds.

The HAWC Sampler and Emulator for CanESM (HAWC-SEC) is software that extracts synthetic data that mimics HAWC observations from climate simulations with the Canadian Earth System Model. It also samples the model data mimicking pre-launch observational campaigns, such as ground-based or aircraft-based measurements. The software integrates samplers, which select the model data following the instrument's view (e.g. satellite orbit or aircraft flight path), with emulators that convert atmospheric properties simulated by a climate model to the quantities retrieved from instrument observations. Although the project is focused on CanESM, the HAWC-SEC software is flexible and could be adopted into other earth system models. HAWC-SEC enables validation of model-simulated cloud and aerosol properties against observations from HAWC and pre-launch campaigns. This data analysis will support development of the model simulated cloud and aerosol physics to improve understanding of earth system science.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

This VLA+JWST project aims to study the gas-rich protocluster J08 (z = 2.66), hosting 11 dusty star-forming galaxies with a total SFR > 5000 M☉/yr. VLA CO(1-0) and JWST/NIRCam data will trace molecular gas and stellar populations to examine how dense environments drive galaxy evolution at Cosmic Noon, completing a full CO and [CI] line analysis when combined with existing ALMA observations.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

This project will use JWST/NIRCam to perform the deepest survey for Kuiper Belt Objects ever. This will result in a Kuiper Belt size distribution down to ~1 km in size, the size of impactor responsible for the craters on Pluto. By tying the size distribution to the cratering record, this survey will provide extremely strong constraints on the formation processes experienced by Kuiper Belt Objects, and provide a direct measure of the timescale of rheological processes occurring on the surfaces of Pluto and Charon.