Astronomy & Space Exploration Society
On May 30th, amid stormy skies, SpaceX's Crew Dragon became the first rocket to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011, thus starting a new era of commercial space flight.
Raffle ticket drawings at the annual ASX Symposium. Here, guest speaker John Cramer draws raffles from a space helmet, in accordance with ASX tradition.
This picture is an original photograph of the Perseid meteor shower taken by ASX Chief Graphic Designer Hansen Jiang. The photo was created by superimposing two separate pictures of meteors onto each other, which is why two streaks of light can be seen.
On May 11th, ASX participated in Science Rendezvous, along with many other science departments and organizations at U of T to bring science out of the lab and onto the street. As per tradition, execs donned ceremonial ASX garb, including space suits and cosmic squid hats.
Why is there a large boulder near the center of Tycho's peak?
Tycho crater on the Moon is one of the easiest features to see, visible even to the unaided eye (inset, lower right).
But at the center of Tycho (inset, upper left) is a something unusual -- a 120-meter boulder.
Curious about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Tune in to the ASX’s next Star Talk on Wednesday, July 28 at 5 pm with Dr. Cherry Ng! Abstract to be posted soon.
See the event page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/944181376428955/
Last year, Space Apps was hosted on Discord and we would appreciate your feedback on how well the hackathon went on this platform. Please respond to the following questions if you were present at this event. The form will close at 11:59 pm on July 31st. Thank you! (All responses are anonymous and this information will be used to help this year’s Local Leads get an idea of what platform to choose for the event).
The Astronomy and Space Exploration Society is raising awareness and adjusting its programming to support an advocacy campaign to restrict donor influence on academic hiring decisions at the University of Toronto.
In 2020, the University of Toronto’s law school presented an offer to Valentina Azarova, a human rights lawyer in Germany, to serve as director of the university’s International Human Rights Program. Azarova accepted the offer in the August of that year. But the dean of the law school at the time, Edward Iacobucci, rescinded the hiring offer, shortly following a call from a major donor to the school, David E. Spiro, who allegedly suggested that hiring Azarova would damage the university’s reputation due to her academic work on the Israeli-Palestine conflict.
In response to the withdrawn hiring offer, the faculty at the University of Toronto who formed the hiring committee—beginning with Audrey Macklin, law professor and the committee’s chair—resigned from their posts. Human rights groups, including the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have since publicly spoken out against the law school’s course of action. These events have made headlines in The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the New Yorker.
The University of Toronto has since released a report that concludes, from a legal perspective, that it is not certain that the hiring decision was reversed due to donor influence. However, a blow-by-blow account by Higher Education Strategy Associates, a Toronto consultancy, concludes that even with this benefit of the doubt, the official reason for reversing the decision remains “flimsy.”
In April 2021, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Council voted in a rarely-used motion to censure the University of Toronto, following an investigation. The move asked the members of the universities that it represents to embargo the University of Toronto, which includes the denial of invitations to speak at the university.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗦𝗫: The ASX supports the CAUT’s move to curtail the influence of donors on the hiring of academic faculty at the University of Toronto.
The ASX is moving to raise awareness of the issue with this letter, hold all events off-campus (including University of Toronto-affiliated Zoom accounts), and avoid inviting speakers not affiliated with the University of Toronto at present. The ASX will also inform all potential speakers about the censure. These decisions are grounded on guidance from the CAUT, the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and the ASX’s independent research. While supporting this campaign, the ASX remains committed to running the highest-quality events in astronomy outreach and education for the public.
We believe that support for this campaign is in the best long-term interest of the community that attends ASX events, in support of freedom in academic research at the university. The ASX will be back with an update on the CAUT campaign in October, to present potential changes or implications for the ASX’s annual Symposium. Thank you for your consideration of this letter.
—ASX Executives
How are astronomers investigating dark matter by analyzing gravitational lenses? Learn more at the ASX’s upcoming Star Talk on June 28 at 5 pm with Dr. Daniel Gilman, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Catch the event page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/542630403411996
Star Talk Abstract: “Most of the mass in the Universe exists in the form of dark matter, an enigmatic substance connected to ‘normal’ matter only through the force of gravity,” writes Dr. Gilman. “As a result, the properties of the dark matter particle and its production mechanism remain a mystery. In my talk, I will review the compelling evidence for the existence of dark matter, and describe what we have learned by analyzing visually spectacular strong gravitational lenses.”
“Gravitational lensing refers to the deflection of light by gravitational fields, and strong lensing refers to a particular case where the extreme deformation of space by a massive foreground object produces multiple highly-magnified and distorted images of a luminous background source,” he continues.
“I will review how strong lensing provides insights into the nature of dark matter on scales ranging from galaxy clusters, the largest concentrations of mass in the Universe, all the way down to sub-galactic scales, where strong lensing reveals the presence of otherwise-invisible dark matter structures throughout the cosmos.”
To join the Star Talk on June 28th at 5:00 pm EST:
Zoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81206689945
Meeting ID: 812 0668 9945
Passcode: 280621
The ASX is proud to present a new logo by graphic designer Hansen Jiang, and refined by designer Janine Charoonruk! To craft the ASX’s first logo update since 2003, Hansen took inspiration from elements of the previous logo, while introducing new elements to capture the mission and nature of the ASX with a distinctive mark.
“The shapes, curves, and weight of each stroke invokes design principles of the golden space age, as well as showing movement and dynamics,” wrote Hansen in his branding proposal. “From a distance, it resembles a star. Upon inspection, especially with the inclusion of the red stroke, the points of the star form the letters ASX. Another representation is that of a rocket entering a wormhole, or sonic barrier. As well, in reference to the 2003 logo, the paths reference rocket trajectories.”
“This logo aims to improve upon the past logo by making each letter distinct and stylistically important,” he continued.
Janine then refined the logomark by adding polish. She applied a colour palette of warm tones—the red in the streak and yellow in the stars—and replaced the black background with charcoal black. “The angle of the gradient was also put in a way to make the round logo pop more [and] look 3D-like, like imagining how light would hit a round ball,” she reflected. “This is done by putting a light colour gradient at the upper left area of the circle to emulate that effect.”
Hansen has since completed his term as a Graphic Designer. The ASX team is thankful for his incredible work, and wishes him an amazing future and career. Janine continues to work with the ASX. Her art Instagram, which Hansen encourages all to visit, is at https://www.instagram.com/chickensoupy/.
Would you like to support the ASX? You can follow us on our socials; and keep an eye out for new ways to support the ASX, coming soon!
