* Astronomy

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
A $10-million expansion to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) research facilities involving Queen's and five other Canadian universities is officially open for business.

The SNOLAB Surface Research Centre will provide a state-of-the-art working environment for researchers, setting the stage for innovative experiments to answer fundamental questions behind the origin of the universe and the nature of matter. Administered by Carleton University, the SNOLAB collaboration includes Queen's, Laurentian, UBC, the University of Guelph, the Université de Montréal, and a number of international partners.


Founding director of the SNO Institute Art McDonald with Queen's Associate Vice-Principal (Research) Sandra Crocker and head of the Physics Department David Hanes at opening of new SNOLAB facilities in Sudbury.

"We are very pleased to build on the successful measurements by the SNO experiment through future experiments in SNOLAB that will probe further fundamental properties of our universe. Our students and staff are preparing a new generation of experiments to look for the dark matter known to make up 25 per cent of our universe, and to study further properties of neutrinos, including measurements that can help us understand the formation of matter shortly after the Big Bang. With SNOLAB, we have the best location in the world for these measurements and can provide wonderful opportunities for our students at the frontiers of physics and astrophysics" - Professor Art McDonald, Queen's Physics, founding director of the SNO Institute and 2003 winner of Canada's top scientist award, the Herzberg Gold Medal.

The discovery by the Queen's-led SNO team in 2001 that solar neutrinos -- tiny subatomic particles produced in the core of the Sun and considered the basic building blocks of the universe -- change into other neutrino types en route to Earth was ranked the second most important scientific breakthrough in the world by the international journal Science. Today, SNOLAB researchers continue to search for previously undetected components of the dark matter thought to make up about one-quarter of the universe, as well as new properties of neutrinos.

Other Queen's researchers involved with SNOLAB include current SNO Institute director Tony Noble and Mark Boulay, both Canada Research Chairs in Particle Astrophysics, and Physics Professors Aksel Hallin and Mark Chen.

Funding for the SNOLAB expansion comes from the Ontario Innovation Trust ($4,821,118), Northern Ontario Heritage Fund ($4,500,000) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation ($605,171) which also contributed close to $39M for a new underground facility. FedNor, INCO, and the Greater City of Sudbury have also provided support for the project.
The next phase of the project, scheduled for 2007, is an underground lab to be constructed two kilometres underground in INCO's Creighton Mine. It will feature the largest laboratory in the world located that far beneath the earth's surface.