2001 Presenter Full Presenter List

Jaymie Matthews

The MOST Project

How old is the universe? What are planets like around other stars? These are big questions that University of British Columbia astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews hopes to answer with a satellite so small he’s nicknamed it the Humble Space Telescope.

It may be tiny, but the MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars) microsat, a suitcase-sized microsatellite, will be Canada’s first space observatory telescope and capable of specialized measurements. Scheduled for launch in 2002/2003, MOST, created by Canadian aerospace technology and pure science, may change the paradigm of how research is done in orbit.

As mission scientist of MOST for the Canadian Space Agency, Matthews is eager to use this new technology to eavesdrop on vibrating stars—and use this celestial “music” to probe their hidden cores.