HR MacMillan Space Centre

Vancouver's H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.
Like no place on Earth.

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

🌍 Space is a shared place. With that, every rocket, satellite, and mission to space leaves a footprint, usually within low-earth orbit. Space debris, also known as space junk, refers to human-made objects that no longer serve a purpose and are now left behind in orbit. There are about 35,000 tracked objects orbiting Earth right now, with millions more smaller fragments believed to be circulating undetected.

🛰️ According to the latest ESA Space Environment Report, the number of objects in orbit continues to rise, making collision avoidance and sustainable practices more important than ever. Space agencies are actively improving guidelines, designing satellites and reusable rockets to deorbit responsibly, and planning missions to remove debris to keep space safe for future exploration.

✨ Even though most pieces burn up on re-entry with very low risks to flights and people on the ground, space debris can have disastrous effects on objects in low Earth orbit. Understanding and managing space debris helps protect both space infrastructure and maintain clear skies.

🚀 Want to learn more on how Canada practices sustainability in space? Check out our friends at SEDS-Canada's Canadian Space Conference with the theme of Space Sustainability next weekend from January 23-25th.

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

✨ What’s Up This January ✨

🔭 Jan 10 | Jupiter at Opposition
Catch Jupiter at its biggest and brightest of the year, rising in the eastern sky after sunset. Only the Moon and Venus will outshine it.

🌙 Jan 23 | Moon & Saturn Conjunction
Watch Saturn appear right below the Moon in the western sky after sunset. Our observatory will be open during the conjunction (weather permitting) for a perfect viewing opportunity!

⭐ All Month | The Beehive Cluster
Spot The Beehive Cluster in the eastern sky from dusk until midnight, with mid-January offering the best views. Under dark enough skies, this star cluster may even be visible to the naked eye.

📍 GMS Observatory Hours:
🗓️ Wednesdays & Fridays
⏰ 7:00–10:30 PM

Hoping for clear skies and happy stargazing this month! ✨🔭

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

❄️🌍 Frozen Worlds Series: Pluto🌍❄️

At the edge of our solar system drifts Pluto, a tiny world of ice and mystery. Its surface is a frozen tapestry of mountains, plains, and craters, dominated by the famous heart-shaped basin Sputnik Planitia, a massive expanse of nitrogen ice glaciers.

Pluto’s surface is composed primarily of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide ices, covering a thick icy crust of water ice that protects the possible subsurface ocean below. Above the frozen plains is a tenuous atmosphere made mostly of nitrogen, with traces of methane and carbon monoxide, that expands and contracts as Pluto moves closer to or farther from the Sun.

Beneath the frigid exterior, some scientists suspect a hidden ocean of liquid water may have persisted for billions of years, insulated by Pluto’s icy shell. This potential subsurface sea hints at the possibility that even the smallest frozen worlds could harbor environments for chemistry, and maybe even life, far from the Sun.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

❄️🌍 Frozen Worlds Series: Ganymede🌍❄️

Drifting in Jupiter’s realm is Ganymede, the largest moon in the entire solar system, even bigger than the planet Mercury. Its battered, grooved surface of predominantly water ice bears the scars of billions of years in the cosmic freeze, a silent record of impacts and ancient tectonic strains.

But unlike most moons, Ganymede has its own magnetic field, the only moon known to generate one. This magnetosphere wraps electrified particles around the moon and creates shimmering auroras at its poles, as Jupiter’s powerful magnetic environment plays with Ganymede’s own.

Beneath the frozen crust lies a hidden world. Strong evidence from spacecraft and telescopes suggests a deep salty ocean, possibly containing more water than all of Earth’s seas, tucked between thick ice layers and warmed by internal heat.

Above the ice drifts a possible thin oxygen atmosphere, barely clinging to the frigid surface, where daytime temperatures plunge into deep cold.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

🎄How do astronauts celebrate the holidays in space? 🚀

Christmas in orbit looks a little different, but the holiday spirit is very much alive. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station mark the season by sharing a special meal, exchanging small gifts, listening to music, watching films, and calling loved ones back on Earth, all while keeping experiments running and the station in tip top shape. 🌍✨

Holiday traditions in space go way back. In 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to spend Christmas in space while orbiting the Moon. Since the first ISS crew arrived in 2000, Christmas (along with Hanukkah and New Years) has been celebrated in orbit every year.

🎶 Interestingly enough, Jingle Bells was the first song ever played in space, broadcast in 1965 during NASA’s Gemini 6A mission.

🎸 In 2012, Expedition 34 crew members gathered in the ISS Unity module for a Christmas celebration, complete with CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield and his guitar pictured here on the right.

Though some may miss their favourite holiday cocktails, they keep the festive spirit alive in orbit with stocking stuffers and dehydrated turkey dinners. 🌌

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

❄️🌍 Frozen Worlds Series: Enceladus 🌍❄️

In the rings of Saturn drifts Enceladus, a tiny moon with one of the most dazzling surfaces in the solar system. Its icy crust reflects almost all sunlight, making this world brighter than fresh snow, and the most reflective body in the solar system.

Just under the thick shell of water ice, scientists believe there is a global salty ocean, kept liquid by internal heat and Saturn’s relentless tidal pull. From that hidden sea, more than 100 geysers erupt at the south pole, blasting jets of water vapor, ice particles, and organic compounds into space at hundreds of miles per hour. Remember, organic compounds does not mean life, but are carbon-based chemicals important for life.

These plumes feed Saturn’s vast E ring (outermost major ring) and create a thin atmosphere, primarily concentrated over the south pole, composed mostly of water vapor with traces of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and methane. Enceladus’ spectacular cryovolcanic plumes make it one of the most exciting places in the search for habitable environments beyond Earth.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

✨ Boxing Day Sale, all week long!

Save 20% on H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Memberships 🚀

For this week only (Dec 22 - 28) join the Space Centre community for less and unlock a full year of cosmic perks:

- Free admission for you + guests (Standard: you + 1 guest; Enhanced: you + 3)
- 20% off general admission at partner museums: Dome Vancouver, Science World, Museum of Vancouver, Maritime Museum, Royal BC Museum, Chinese Canadian Museum, Bill Reid Gallery, and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum
- 25% off events for you + your membership guests
Cosmic Birthday Party discount — members get 20% off Cosmic Quest party bookings
- 15% off venue rentals when you book the Space Centre for an event
- Receive our monthly newsletter, voting rights, and more ways to stay connected to space

Don’t miss this chance — pick up your membership at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre to give the gift of the cosmos this Christmas! 🌠

Join here: https://t.co/bSCO4pxktO

#BoxingDay #SpaceCentre #MembershipPerks #Stargazing #ScienceLovers #VancouverScience

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

Thank you for joining us for Salish Skies: Indigenous Sky Stories 🌌

We’re grateful to everyone who joined us for an evening of learning and reflection with Dr. Shandin Pete, who shared powerful insights into ancient Salish asterisms and the rich astronomical knowledge carried across generations. From "The Canoe" to "Cast Away Children" and the "Camas Baking Pit", it was a meaningful journey beyond Western constellations and into living sky stories. 🛶

The evening concluded under the dome with a planetarium experience that brought these stories to life among the stars. ✨

If you couldn’t make it, you can still explore Indigenous perspectives of the night sky with One Sky Project: Indigenous Astronomy, playing everyday in December at 12:00 PM in our 360° dome planetarium in the Star Theatre.

Thank you for helping us honour the many ways of knowing the sky.

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

❄️🌍 Frozen Worlds Series: Callisto 🌍❄️

Far from Jupiter’s raging radiation belts drifts Callisto, an ancient world locked in deep freeze. Its surface is a battered shell of ice and rock, scarred by billions of years of impacts, making it the most heavily cratered moon in the solar system. No towering volcanoes, no shifting plates, just a frozen record of cosmic collisions, preserved in ice.

Beneath that icy crust, however, scientists suspect a hidden ocean may still exist, trapped between layers of ice and rock. Callisto’s composition is a mix of water ice and rocky material, and while it shows little internal activity, its quiet interior may still hold salty liquid water deep below the surface.

Above it all hangs an extremely thin atmosphere, made mostly of carbon dioxide with traces of oxygen, so faint it barely clings to the moon. With no signs of recent geological renewal, Callisto has remained largely unchanged since the early solar system, as a frozen time capsule, silently guarding its secrets beneath the ice.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/DLR

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

❄️🌍 Frozen Worlds Series: Europa 🌍❄️

Welcome to Europa, one of the coldest and most mysterious worlds in the solar system. Locked in Jupiter’s deep freeze, this moon is wrapped in a thick shell of water ice, its surface cracked and fractured by immense tidal forces. Temperatures plunge so low that the ice becomes rock-hard, trapping Europa in an endless, silent winter.

Beneath the surface lies a layered world. Scientists believe Europa has an iron core, surrounded by a rocky mantle, and capped by a vast saltwater ocean hidden below the frozen crust. Salts embedded in the surface ice hint at this ocean below, while a faint oxygen atmosphere clings weakly to the moon, created as radiation splits frozen water apart.

From orbit, Europa’s surface looks like shattered glass drifting through space, constantly bombarded by intense radiation from Jupiter’s magnetosphere. The exterior is brutal and lifeless, but deep below the ice, internal heat may keep the ocean liquid, creating one of the most intriguing environments for chemistry beyond Earth.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

Celebrating 35 Years of Canadian Space Innovation 🚀

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). While initially created in March 1989, the CSA was officially established on December 14th, 1990, through the Canadian Space Agency Act. From humble beginnings to global-impact missions, here’s how SOME of the ways that Canada has made its mark beyond Earth:

- Long before CSA existed, Canadian engineers built a legendary robotic arm known as Canadarm first flown in 1981, establishing Canada as a pioneer in space robotics.

- With CSA’s founding, Canada expanded its role globally. In 1990, Canadarm helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, opening a new era in astronomy and space science.

- 9 Canadians have flown to space with the CSA (thus far), starting with Marc Garneau in 1984 as the first Canadian in space. In 1992, Roberta Bondar became the first Canadian woman in space.

- Canada’s space robotics legacy continues: the 17.6-metre Canadarm2 and the dual-armed servicing robot Dextre became essential tools for building and maintaining the International Space Station.

- Canada has also pioneered Earth observation and space science: missions like RADARSAT‑1 and its successors monitor our planet’s environment, while space telescopes like MOST study distant stars.

At the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, we celebrate this legacy and honour the Canadian spirit of exploration, innovation, and scientific curiosity.

Here’s to 35 years — and many more to come. 🍁✨

#CanadianSpace #SpaceExploration #Canadarm #SpaceHistory #ProudlyCanadian #Astronomy #Innovation

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

🎄A Cosmic Christmas Tree ✨

This stunning composite image of NGC 2264, better known as the Christmas Tree Cluster, truly lives up to its festive name. Located about 2,500 light-years away, this region is filled with young stars just 1–5 million years old, glowing like celestial holiday lights. 🌠🎄

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

Santa’s Visiting the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre! 🎅✨

Join us for a festive family adventure! Snap a photo with Santa, create cosmic holiday crafts, and stargaze the North Pole night sky in our immersive 360° planetarium.⭐

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

🌌 Webb Reveals the Milky Way’s Largest Star-Forming Cloud ☁

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a breathtaking dive into Sagittarius B2, the most massive and active star-forming cloud in the entire Milky Way. 🌟

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

🔭 Gordan Southam Observatory Update

Our main telescope is currently not operational, but don’t worry, we’re on it! ✨

In the meantime, observatory tours are still running, and you can continue stargazing with our Interpreters via our portable telescopes outside the observatory

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

✨ EXTENDED Black Friday Offer! Save 20% on H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Memberships 🚀

For this week only (Nov 24 - 30) join the Space Centre community for less and unlock a full year of cosmic perks.🌠

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

🌌 Salish Skies: Indigenous Sky Stories 🌠

Join us on December 13th for an inspiring afternoon where Indigenous knowledge, culture, and the cosmos come together at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

✨ Science & Song Under the Planetarium ✨

Join us on December 2 from 6pm-8:15pm at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre for a magical live recording of the Nice Genes! Genome BC podcast — where music meets neuroscience. 🎶

[HR MacMillan Space Centre @SpaceCentreYVR]

This weekend on October 4th and 5th, the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is hosting this year’s Nasa Space Apps Challenge!

Register now at https://t.co/pbts9m3aQJ

A huge thank you to the other local sponsors!
Canadian Space Agency
UBC ECESS
MDA Space
BC+AI Ecosystems
#nasaspaceapps