Canada Shows the Way

Forrest M. Mims III

Canada is known for high quality student science fairs and related web sites. Canada is also known for doing more with less in high quality professional science. In doing so, Canada provides a role model for other countries with limited science budgets and even serious amateur scientists who have long conducted high quality research on a shoestring budget.

Consider the Canadian Space Agency's remarkable space telescope, the Microvariability & Oscillations of STars (MOST) microsatellite that was placed in orbit in June 2003 by a modified Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (Fig.1). Astronomers have long competed to build the biggest telescopes. That's what makes Canada's MOST space satellite so special, for it is tiny by comparison. It's mirror is only 15 cm (6 inches) across. The entire satellite weighs only 54 kilograms (119 pounds) and is about the size of a suitcase (Fig. 2). Yet its photometer can measure fluctuations in the brightness of a star down to one part in a million. MOST can also point its little telescope at a star for up to two months. The much larger Hubble Space Telescope (Fig. 3) can stare at a star only around 6 days at most.

The pointing stability of MOST gives it the capability to make unprecedented observations of the equivalent of sunspots on distant stars and to measure the optical oscillations known as starquakes. You can learn much more about the satellite and its discoveries at the MOST web site.

Canada has long excelled in ozone science. Since 1960, the Experimental Studies Division of the Meteorological Service of Canada has managed the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC ). Dr. Jim Kerr is one of Canada's leading ozone scientists. I once asked him how Canada was able to develop such a high quality ozone monitoring network. I still remember his reply: "Because we can't afford satellites."

Canada may not have the science budget of the United States, Russia, China and other major powers, but that has not stopped Canadian scientists from excelling in special ways. Amateur scientists have done this for hundreds of years, so in our own small way we can relate to Canada's achievements.