Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA)
Société canadienne d'astronomie (CASCA)

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Jaymie M. MATTHEWS
University of British Columbia

Space Science in a Suitcase: Early Results from MOST

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Viewing the Universe in new ways has always yielded surprising discoveries. Astronomers are accustomed to extending the limits of wavelength coverage, light-gathering power, and angular resolution. The MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) space instrument - an optical photometer of small (15-cm) aperture which deliberately blurs its stellar images for stability - forges its advances in totally different regions of parameter space. MOST is the only existing observatory which can monitor stars several times per minute with almost no interruptions for weeks at a time, reaching photometric precisions of a few micromagnitudes (ppm). This is at least 25 times better than ever achieved before from Earth or space.

These demonstrated levels of time sampling and ultraprecise photometry enable the MOST Science team to explore with unprecedented sensitivity acoustic (p-mode) oscillations and granulation behaviour in other stars, reflected light from giant close-in exoplanets, and other phenomena associated with stellar variability.

I will summarise the first year of the MOST mission, including results on Sun-like stars such as Procyon and beta Virginis, a "young" counterpart to the Sun (kappa 1 Ceti), newly discovered pulsators caught in the nets of MOST's Secondary Science and Guide Star fields, and -- I expect, by the time of this meeting -- a few other surprises.