Thirty-five years ago, Toronto astronomer Tom Bolton made a discovery that rocked the scientific world: He proved the existence of black holes.
A few leading astrophysicists had predicted that so-called "black holes" could be created when huge stars die and implode under their own massive weight. According to the far-out theories, these super-dense objects would exert such a powerful gravitational pull that not even light could escape their grasp. Essentially, black holes would be invisible - and that would make it extremely difficult to find one.
But Prof. Bolton of the University of Toronto achieved the near impossible by spending many long nights at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill. He charted the bizarre movements of a star that appeared to be tugged by an unseen companion. Gases were being sucked off the surface of the star and disappearing into the void of space. He published his findings in 1972, arguing that the only logical explanation was a black hole.
"It took months of work, but it was a gamble that panned out," said Prof. Bolton, who was 28 at the time of his landmark paper. Indeed, the discovery earned him, as well as the U of T's Dunlap Observatory, a place in the history books.
Today, Prof. Bolton's beloved observatory appears headed for the auction block. The university recently announced plans to sell it and the surrounding 190-acre property.
The observatory, in a sense, has fallen victim to the urban sprawl around Toronto. Light pollution from encroaching development has "limited the reach of the telescope in terms of the objects you can actually see," explained Pekka Sinervo, dean of U of T's arts and science department.
When it first opened 72 years ago, it was surrounded by farmers' fields. Now, housing abuts the wooded site that is home to the domed observatory and its stately administrative building.
But the relentless march of urbanization north of Toronto has a silver lining - it's driven up land prices and the university stands to make a tidy profit. The estimated value of the property ranges from $75-million to $100-million.
Prof. Sinervo said money from the sale would be used to create a new Dunlap Institute at the university's downtown St. George campus. Among other things, the institute would concentrate on the design and development of sophisticated equipment for the next generation of huge telescopes being planned for more remote and darker locations around the world.
Yet even before the university could consider the sale, it first had to reach an agreement with the Dunlap family. In 1935, Jesse Dunlap donated all the money for the observatory in memory of her late husband, David, a mining entrepreneur and astronomy buff. Under the original terms of the gift, which amounted to $28,000, the property would revert back to the family if it were no longer used for astronomy.
After lengthy discussions, the family has agreed to re-endow the university, with the sale proceeds apparently being divided between the university and the Dunlap descendants.
"The university's share will actually be the single largest portion," said Prof. Sinervo, although he would not provide precise details.
The proposal goes to the university's governing council on Oct. 30 for final approval.
Family spokesman David Dunlap said the new Dunlap Institute "is going to be a world-class centre of excellence and I am absolutely certain my grandmother [Jesse] would be delighted with this chain of events."
But Prof. Bolton and other astronomers mourn the demise of the historic observatory, which can still boast the largest optical telescope in Canada, measuring 1.88 metres (74 inches) in diameter. (At the time it opened, it was the second biggest in the world.) "It is a real tragedy," said Prof. Bolton, who is now 64 and one year away from retirement as a professor in U of T's department of astronomy and astrophysics. "The facility has unique capabilities for certain kinds of research and the current powers-that-be don't consider that research important."
Ian Shelton, a Toronto astronomer who is famed for discovering the brightest supernova (exploding star) in 400 years, is another advocate for the observatory's research. He noted that the telescope is actually "100 times more sensitive" today than when it was first built. In the late 1980s, the observatory abandoned traditional photographic plates and switched to electronic equipment that can amplify the light of individual stars while subtracting the effects of background light pollution.
Dr. Shelton acknowledged that a bigger telescope in a darker location would be needed to study the farthest and faintest objects in the heavens. But the old observatory is still useful for examining the "billions of stars" in our own galactic neighbourhood and "quite a few of them are very exciting."
Even so, Prof. Sinervo insists that abandoning the Dunlap Observatory is the right thing to do. "I don't disagree that there is science being done." But that type of "bread and butter [research] isn't going to ... change our understanding of the universe."
By focusing on the development of telescopic equipment, he said, the university might be able to earn a stake in a more powerful observatory capable of looking back to virtually the beginning of time.
"We are working to understand what really happened in the first few thousand years of the universe. That is the kind of thing we can do with the investment, if properly made. It is a different vision for how we should put our resources to play. The reality is that the large majority of our astronomers here at the university are in full agreement with this decision to go forward."
