ASX: Astronomy & Space Exploration Association

Home
Canada
Toronto, ON
ASX: Astronomy & Space Exploration Association

Are you a space enthusiast? The ASX Association —run by undergraduates—creates events with Unive

04/22/2026

🗳️ Voting has begun for our 2026-27 executive elections! Vote for your favourite candidates at utasx.ca/vote, or through the link in our bio. Voting ends 30th April, and is open to all UofT students.

04/04/2026

Thank you to all the execs for a year of hard work. If you would like to join ASX and impact the Toronto astronomy community, apply to become an executive for the 2026-2027 year now! Link in bio 🔗

03/20/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us at our 2026 Symposium! 🌌 We’re incredibly grateful to our amazing speakers and MC, Dr. Wen-fai Fong, Dr. Jillian Rastinejad, Dr. Shami Chatterjee, and Alicia Savelli. A big thank you as well to our organizing team and volunteers who made this event possible. And to our audience, thank you for your curiosity and energy. We can’t wait to see you at our next event!

03/15/2026

Join us for the March Observation Night as we gather to observe stars, planets, and whatever the sky has in store.
📍 McLennan Physical Laboratories
🗓 March 20 | ⏰ 8–10 PM

03/05/2026

Symposium Schedule 📖 is out!
Register to the event with the link in the bio!

02/28/2026

Meet our 2026 Symposium speaker, Alicia Savelli! Join us for an exploration of black holes and the physics that makes them shine. From analytical theory to large-scale simulations, discover how the gas falling into black holes powers some of the most luminous phenomena in the Universe. 🌌✨

📅 6th March, 6:30–10:30PM

📍 MC102 (Mechanical Engineering Building, 5 King’s College Road)

Speaker Biography: Alicia Savelli is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics. Her research focuses on developing analytical models and running simulations of accreting gas around black holes to understand the physical processes that power their emission. Before beginning her PhD, Alicia was a high school physics and mathematics teacher, and she remains deeply passionate about making science accessible to broader communities. Outside of research, she enjoys listening to Taylor Swift and spending time with her cat.

02/23/2026

Meet our 2026 Symposium speaker, Dr. Wen-fai Fong! Join us for a journey into cosmic collisions and the revolutionary discovery that changed astronomy in 2017. Discover how neutron star mergers — shining in both gravitational waves and light — opened the era of multi-messenger astronomy and transformed how we observe the transient universe. 🌌✨

📅 6th March, 6:30–10:30PM

📍 MC102 (Mechanical Engineering Building, 5 King’s College Road)

Speaker Biography: Wen-fai Fong is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University and leads the Fong Research Group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). Her research focuses on understanding the origins of cosmic explosions through multi-wavelength observations across the electromagnetic spectrum. She characterizes the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts, mobilizes the SAGUARO telescope network in Southern Arizona to follow up gravitational-wave events, and conducts multi-wavelength studies of fast radio bursts to uncover their physical origins. Her work has contributed to the development of multi-messenger astronomy, particularly in the study of neutron star mergers. Professor Fong is deeply committed to mentorship and fostering an inclusive scientific community. Outside of research, she enjoys cooking adventurous recipes, solving New York Times crosswords (up to Wednesday!), watching the Food Network, and spending time with her family.

02/21/2026

Meet our 2026 Symposium speaker, Dr. Jillian Rastinejad! Join us for an electrifying exploration of gamma-ray bursts — the brightest explosions in the high-energy sky — and discover how these fleeting flashes reveal the origins of heavy elements and the most violent events in our Universe. 🌌✨

📅 6th March, 6:30–10:30PM

📍 MC102 (Mechanical Engineering Building, 5 King’s College Road)

Speaker Biography: Jillian Rastinejad is a NASA Einstein Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her bachelor’s degree in physics and human rights from the University of Connecticut in 2019 and her PhD in astronomy from Northwestern University in 2025 under the supervision of Prof. Wen-fai Fong. Her research focuses on gamma-ray bursts and compact object mergers, challenging long-standing paradigms of high-energy signals and revealing that the signatures of heavy element formation are more diverse than previously understood. She has led rapid-response observing programs on the Hubble Space Telescope, the Gemini Observatories, and Keck Observatory, following up on alerts from NASA satellites to pinpoint new cosmic explosions. Outside of research, she enjoys running, hiking, experimenting in the kitchen, and exploring Washington, D.C.

02/18/2026

Meet our 2026 Symposium speaker, Dr. Shami Chatterjee! Join us for an exciting exploration into fast radio bursts and the mysterious flashes lighting up the distant universe — and discover how they’re helping us uncover the hidden matter between galaxies. 🌌✨

📅 6th March, 6:30-10:30PM

📍 MC102 (Mechanical Engineering Building, 5 King’s College Road)

Speaker Biography: Shami Chatterjee is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University. His research focuses on neutron stars in their many forms, the use of these objects to detect low-frequency gravitational waves, and the study of fast radio bursts — powerful millisecond-duration flashes of radio waves originating from billions of light-years away. His work has appeared on the cover of Nature and has been featured in major outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Professor Chatterjee has been at Cornell University since 2009 and continues to investigate some of the most energetic and enigmatic phenomena in the universe.

02/09/2026

No plans for Valentine’s Day Weekend? Don’t worry, ASX has you covered! Join us for a lovely evening on top of the McLennan Building with the stars ⭐️ 🔭
Hot chocolate and timbits will be provided!

Address

21 Sussex Avenue, Unit 526
Toronto, ON
M5S1J6

Website

https://asx.sa.utoronto.ca/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when ASX: Astronomy & Space Exploration Association posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The University

Send a message to ASX: Astronomy & Space Exploration Association:

Shortcuts

Want your university to be the top-listed University in Toronto?