Montreal Astrophysicist Takes On Neutron Stars

Deep space research nets McGill professor major Canadian science prize

Ottawa, Ontario, March 20, 2003 – If astrophysicist Dr. Victoria Kaspi were a wrestler she would have some serious bad-mouth bragging rights. This scientist is using x-ray vision to corner billion-year-old cosmic objects that give new meaning to the terms big and powerful.

“Imagine an object one-and-a-half times the mass of the Sun, crushed into the size of Montreal and rotating as fast as a household blender,” says the McGill University physics professor about one type of neutron star called a "millisecond pulsar." And, as if this isn’t impressive enough, neutron stars are the densest visible objects in the universe: a single tablespoon of the stuff weighs about one billion tonnes.

Kaspi’s internationally acclaimed work on these stars today captured her a top Canadian science and engineering honour from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

The NSERC Steacie Fellowship is among six announced by Allan Rock, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for NSERC, Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, Minister of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development, and Dr. Tom Brzustowski, President of NSERC. This is the third Steacie award to a McGill University professor since 2000.

“NSERC Steacie Fellows are blazing trails for themselves and for Canada on the international research scene,” said Minister Rock. “They are leading Canada towards its goal of becoming one of the top five countries in the world for research and development.”

“These awards are public recognition for outstanding scientific achievement,” said Minister Pagtakhan. “Indeed this is Canada’s way of saying ‘thank you’ and giving outstanding scientists and engineers the opportunity and resources to bring their ideas to a new level of excellence.”

“Physics doesn’t yet know what is going on with matter at such high densities,” says Dr. Kaspi, who also hold the Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics at McGill University. “You can’t reproduce these conditions in a laboratory. In fact, a neutron star is the only place in the universe where matter can exist at such high densities.”

As such, these remnants of collapsed stars (which are the close cousins of black holes) provide a unique window into the physics of matter at these extremes. Dr. Kaspi’s research team is using the world’s most advanced satellite-based x-ray telescopes, including NASA’s $1-billion Chandra X-Ray Observatory, as well as the largest Earth-based radio telescopes to locate and study the behaviour of these cosmic heavyweights.

This past summer, her eight-person research group identified a new type of magnetar, a type of neutron star whose emitted energy comes not from fusion (as with our sun), or its rotational energy (as with pulsars) but from its enormous magnetic field. In the September 12, 2002, issue of Nature, the group reported the first observations of distinctive bursts of x-rays from so-called anomalous x-ray pulsars.

“What we proved is that anomalous x-ray pulsars are also magnetars, and that explains their energy source,” says Dr. Kaspi. “But discovering these energy bursts is just opening a whole new field, so we’re going to continue to study them. We don’t know why they burst, how often they burst, or any number of other questions that we want to attack.”

While an NSERC Steacie Fellow, Dr. Kaspi will also be scanning the Milky Way for as yet undiscovered millisecond pulsars. This cosmic search involves collecting terabytes (trillions of bytes) of radio telescope data. To analyze it for the telltale millisecond radio wave pulses produced by pulsars, Dr. Kaspi’s team turns to The Borg (a name that betrays her love of science fiction). The cluster supercomputer consists of 52 nodes of processors and is one of the world’s most powerful computers dedicated to pulsar research.

One goal of this research is to pin down maximum spin speeds of the pulsars. Her team has already found some rotating at around 300 times a second. If she can find one spinning at twice this speed, it would clarify the types and state of matter in these dead stars. It’s a search for the extreme that has Dr. Kaspi laugh while asking, “Just how fast can one of these things spin?”

For more information, please contact:

Arnet Sheppard
Manager, Newsbureau
Communications
NSERC
Telephone: (613) 995-5997
E-mail: axs@nserc.ca

The Prize

NSERC Steacie Fellowships are awarded to the most outstanding Canadian university scientists or engineers, who have earned their doctorate within the last twelve years. Nominations are received by NSERC from universities across Canada and the international impact of the individual’s work is judged by a distinguished panel of independent experts. The award includes increased research funding from NSERC and a payment to the university to allow the individual to pursue his or her research full-time. The winning Steacie Fellows are also eligible to compete for a special Canada Foundation for Innovation Career Award. The announcement of these awards will be made later.

The six winners this year are:

Dr. Gary Saunders (University of New Brunswick)
Dr. Victoria Kaspi (McGill University)
Dr. Zongchao Jia (Queen’s University)
Dr. Molly Shoichet (University of Toronto)
Dr. Kim Vicente (University of Toronto)
Dr. Michel Gingras (University of Waterloo).

Canada’s Innovation Strategy

Last year, the Government of Canada launched Canada’s Innovation Strategy, two papers that lay out a plan to address skills and innovation challenges for the next decade. The paper released by Minister Rock is entitled Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity. It proposes goals, targets and priorities for Canada over the next decade to: create knowledge and bring ideas to market more quickly; ensure a skilled workforce in the new economy; modernize business and regulatory policies while protecting the public interest; and strengthen communities by supporting innovation at the local level. Today’s announcement supports this strategy.

For more information about Canada’s Innovation Strategy or to obtain a copy of either Knowledge Matters: Skills and Learning for Canadians or Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity, please call 1-800-O CANADA
(1-800-622-6232) or visit http://www.innovationstrategy.gc.ca.