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Gilles Fontaine
Gilles Fontaine (1948 – November 1, 2019) was a professor of astrophysics at the Université de Montréal in Quebec, Canada. Fontaine's research interests included theoretical and observational studies of white dwarfs, sub-dwarf stars and astroseismology (the interpretation of variations in brightness of certain pulsating or vibrating stars to understand their interior structure). In particular, he found that white dwarfs can serve as test benches for the equation of state, the coefficient of transport, and the phase transition between solid and liquid states at very high densities. Early life and education Gilles Fontaine was born in 1948 in Lévis, Quebec. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Université Laval in 1969. He arrived at the University of Rochester in the fall of that year to begin his graduate work, initially hoping to study quantum optics. However, he ended up following his interest in astronomy to work with Hugh M. Van Horn on modeling convection in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lévis, Quebec
Lévis () is a city in eastern Quebec, Canada, located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec City. A ferry links Old Quebec with Old Lévis, and two bridges, the Quebec and the Pierre-Laporte, connect western Lévis with Quebec City. The population in July 2017 was 144,147. Its current incarnation was founded on January 1, 2002, as the result of a merger among ten cities, including the older city of Lévis founded in 1861. Lévis is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of Quebec, coextensive with the city of Lévis. Its geographical code is 25 as a census division, and 251 as an RCM-equivalent territory. History First Nations and prehistoric indigenous peoples settled in this area for thousands of years due to its ideal location at the confluence of the Chaudière and the St. Lawrence rivers. Many archeological sites reveal evidence of human occupation dating to 10,000 years ago. So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Astronomical Society
The Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA; french: link=yes, La Société Canadienne d'Astronomie) is a Canadian society of professional astronomers, founded in 1971 and incorporated in 1983. The society is devoted to the promotion and advancement of knowledge of the universe through research and education, and its membership is open to people with a professional involvement in astronomy and related sciences. The main activities of the Society are its annual scientific meetings, the planning and realization of scientific projects, the support of the scientific activities of its members, and the dissemination of related information among members and other interested people. History Before World War II, there were few professional astronomers in Canada. There were two government-run, national observatories, the Dominion Observatory, which opened in 1905 in Ottawa, Ontario and the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, which opened in 1918 in Saanich, British Columbia. In additio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Astrophysicists
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Canadian''. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of groups of many different ethnic, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages, and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
400811 Gillesfontaine
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest composite number, its proper divisors being and . Four is the sum and product of two with itself: 2 + 2 = 4 = 2 x 2, the only number b such that a + a = b = a x a, which also makes four the smallest squared prime number p^. In Knuth's up-arrow notation, , and so forth, for any number of up arrows. By consequence, four is the only square one more than a prime number, specifically three. The sum of the first four prime numbers two + three + five + seven is the only sum of four consecutive prime numbers that yields an odd prime number, seventeen, which is the fourth super-prime. Four lies between the first proper pair of twin primes, three and five, which are the first two Fermat primes, like seventeen, which is the third. On the other hand, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. Of the roughly one million known asteroids the greatest number are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, approximately 2 to 4 astronomical unit, AU from the Sun, in the main asteroid belt. Asteroids are generally classified to be of three types: C-type asteroid, C-type, M-type asteroid, M-type, and S-type asteroid, S-type. These were named after and are generally identified with carbonaceous, metallic, and silicaceous compositions, respectively. The size of asteroids varies greatly; the largest, Ceres (dwarf planet), Ceres, is almost across and qualifies as a dwarf planet. The total mass of all the asteroids combined is only 3% that of Earth's Moon. The majority of main belt asteroids follow slig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canada Research Chair
Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada wanting to promote research and development excellence in Canadian post-secondary educational institutions. Through the Canada Research Chair program, $300 million is spent annually to attract and retain outstanding scholars and scientists. The program hopes to help chairholders achieve research excellence in natural sciences, engineering, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences, improve Canada's depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthen the country's international competitiveness, and train personnel through student supervision, teaching, and the coordination of other researchers' work. Types of chairs There are two types of Canada Research Chair: *Tier 1 Chairs – tenable for seven years and renewable once (and twi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prix Marie-Victorin
The Prix Marie-Victorin is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, which "goes to researchers in the pure and applied sciences whose work lies in fields outside biomedicine. These fields include the natural and physical sciences, engineering, and technology, and the agricultural sciences" It is named in honour of Marie-Victorin, Brother Marie-Victorin. Winners See also * List of general science and technology awards This list of general science and technology awards is an index to articles about notable awards for general contributions to science and technology. These awards typically have broad scope, and may apply to many or all areas of science and/or te ... References Award winners Canadian science and technology awards Prix du Québec {{Quebec-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Killam Trusts
The Killam Trusts were established in 1965 after the death of Mrs. Dorothy J. Killam, the widow of Izaak Walton Killam, a Canadian financier, for a time the wealthiest man in Canada. He died intestate in 1955, but before his death he and his wife discussed in extensive detail the scholarship plan on which the Killam Trusts were founded. Approximately one half of his estate went to the government as inheritance tax. It was used to found the Canada Council, along with similar funds from the estate of Sir James Dunn, also from Nova Scotia). The rest of Mr. Killam's estate was inherited by his widow, Dorothy J. Killam. In the ten years between his death and hers, she doubled the Killam fortune. Upon her death at Villa Leopolda, her estate in France, her lawyer Donald N. Byers, QC put into motion the plans the Killams had discussed during their lifetimes. Having no children of their own, the Killams decided to leave their fortune to further post-secondary education in Canada at the gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Association Of Physicists
Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP), or in French Association canadienne des physiciens et physiciennes (ACP) is a Canadian professional society that focuses on creating awareness among Canadians and Canadian legislators of physics issues, sponsoring physics related events, physics outreach, and publishes ''Physics in Canada''. It was founded in July 1945. The organization has over 1,600 members and is bilingual, functioning in English and French. P. Phys. professional certification The CAP can appoint an official designation called the P. Phys. which stands for Professional Physicist, similar to the designation of P. Eng. which stands for Professional Engineer. This designation was unveiled at the CAP congress in 1999 and more than 200 people carry this distinction. Physics contests The Canadian Association of Physics hosts several CAP physics contests across Canada each year, aimed at different levels of physics students. The CAP High School Prize exam is offered across ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Astronomical Observatory
South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's function is to conduct research in astronomy and astrophysics. The primary telescopes are located in Sutherland, which is from Observatory, Cape Town, where the headquarters is located. The SAAO has links worldwide for scientific and technological collaboration. Instrumental contributions from the South African Astronomical Observatory include the development of a spherical aberration corrector and the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). The Noon Gun on Cape Town's Signal Hill is fired remotely by a time signal from the Observatory. History The history of the SAAO began when the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope was founded in 1820, the first scientific institution in Africa. Construction of the main buildings was complet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subdwarf B Star
A B-type subdwarf (sdB) is a kind of subdwarf star with spectral type B. They differ from the typical subdwarf by being much hotter and brighter. They are situated at the "extreme horizontal branch" of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Masses of these stars are around 0.5 solar masses, and they contain only about 1% hydrogen, with the rest being helium. Their radius is from 0.15 to 0.25 solar radii, and their temperature is from 20,000 to 40,000K. These stars represent a late stage in the evolution of some stars, caused when a red giant star loses its outer hydrogen layers before the core begins to fuse helium. The reasons why this premature mass loss occurs are unclear, but the interaction of stars in a binary star system is thought to be one of the main mechanisms. Single subdwarfs may be the result of a merger of two white dwarfs. The sdB stars are expected to become white dwarfs without going through any more giant stages. Subdwarf B stars, being more luminous than white ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whole Earth Telescope
The Whole Earth Telescope is an international network of astronomers that collaborate to study variable stars. The distribution of the observatories in longitude allow the selected targets to be continuously monitored despite the rotation of the Earth. History This concept was devised by American astronomer R. Edward Nather and Don E. Winget of the University of Texas at Austin. The consortium consists of individual astronomers interested in collaborating to study targets designated by a principal investigator. Where colleagues are not available, astronomers are dispatched to sites that allow telescope time to visitors. Initial funding for WET came from a grant by the US National Science Foundation, which lasted through 1998. For each site, an observing run begins when the sky is dark, and continues until stopped by weather or dawn. A photometer is used to observe the target object, a nearby comparison star, and the background sky. The data is then sent to the control center. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
