CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons learns about the SPIDERS deformable mirror system

During a tour of events in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons visited the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, a research facility of the National Research Council. 

Part of the visit took place at the new Integration and Testing Facility of the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre where she learned about the Subaru Pathfinder Instrument for Detecting Exoplanets and Retrieving Spectra, or SPIDERS, from Dr. William Thompson, the Herzberg Instrument Science Fellow. SPIDERS is a very complex camera that will allow astronomers to see faint exoplanets that sit beside very bright stars. (Credit: Canadian Space Agency)