Canada's first space telescope, MOST, celebrates its fourth birthday today, a day before Canada celebrates the nation's birthday. And to mark the occasion, the Canadian Space Agency and the MOST Science Team are giving Canadian students, amateur astronomers and stargazing enthusiasts the chance to make their own discoveries with this tiny but powerful space observatory. The MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) satellite was launched four years ago today from a Russian cosmodrome, aboard a former Soviet missile. It was intended to be a one-year mission, but has exceeded every expectation of mission planners since blasting into space. The science MOST has accomplished sometimes sounds more astromedicine than astrophysics: performing "ultrasound" on stellar embryos, diagnosing the skin complexion and hyperactivity of a pre-teen sun, and taking the pulses of stellar senior citizens.

MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars)

MOST has also begun the search for Terra Nova – looking for "Earths" around other stars - and the study of weather on planets beyond the Solar System. "We can tell you how cloudy it is on a planet you can't even see around a star 160 light years away," enthuses MOST Mission Scientist Dr. Jaymie Matthews, an astrophysics professor at the University of British Columbia, speaking to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in Calgary on Friday. "And I can't even tell you whether it'll be cloudy in Calgary tomorrow."

Dr. Matthews compiled a Top Ten List of MOST accomplishments so far, which is attached to this release. "Even David Letterman never had stars on his show like the ones MOST has on its target list," quips Dr. Matthews.

While the exoplanetary science and many other discoveries by MOST were never part of the original mission plan, the Canadian Space Agency and the MOST Team had planned from the start to give ordinary Canadians a chance to observe with their space telescope, 820 km above the Earth.

"MOST was nicknamed the "Humble Space Telescope" before launch. It has since become 'The Little Telescope That Could'". Now MOST can also stand for "My Own Space Telescope", announced Dr. Matthews today. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to wonder about the universe, and Canada's students and amateur astronomers have 'the right stuff' to explore those cosmic wonders."

All Canadians will have the chance to submit proposals for scientific observations with MOST. The MOST Science Team will select one or more of the best proposals that are feasible with the satellite. MOST will then collect the observations and the Team will work with the winners to analyse and publish the results.

Check the MOST web site at www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST/ for details and instructions.

MOST (www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST) is a Canadian Space Agency mission, jointly operated by Dynacon Inc., the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies and the University of British Columbia, with the assistance of the University of Vienna.

For advance interviews on this story, please contact Dr. Jaymie Matthews at 604-822-2696 or matthews@astro.ubc.ca.