The most violent places in the universe are being studied right here at Saint Mary’s – by both graduate and undergraduate students
New funding from the Canadian Space Agency is helping push that research even further. $100,000 in support for Canada’s role in the XRISM mission is now backing the work of Dr. Luigi Gallo and his student team, Saint Mary’s AstrophysicS High-Energy ResearcherS or the SMASHERS.
Keegan Riggs
“Working with SMASHERS has been incredible,” says Keegan Riggs, a third-year undergraduate physics and astrophysics student at Saint Mary’s University. “The group is a mix of students and post-doc fellows. It’s been really cool getting their experience and applying it to my courses now.”
“Everyone has their own research they are working on,” says Keegan. “Every week we meet up, share our progress and bounce things off each other – we ‘smash’ our ideas together. It really helps expand our understanding.”
Dr. Luigi Gallo
Dr. Gallo’s team includes graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates who take part in every part of the research process, from crafting telescope proposals and analyzing data, writing papers and presenting at international conferences.
“Students are involved right from the beginning,” says Dr. Gallo, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Saint Mary’s University. “They write proposals, analyze the data, and carry out full projects. And now, with this new funding, they can go even deeper – including travel, publishing and presenting internationally.”
XRISM is an international space mission that studies black holes, exploding stars, and the chaotic cosmic environments that shape galaxies.
Led by Japan’s space agency (JAXA) with support from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), XRISM is a next-generation X-ray observatory that is now collecting data that scientists have been waiting decades to see.
“These are the major instruments of our time,” says Gallo. “Everyone’s heard of Hubble – but XRISM, Euclid, and James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, are the missions defining astrophysics right now. Students at Saint Mary’s are not just participating, they are leading the work.”
Black holes themselves do not emit light, but their surroundings do. XRISM captures and decodes high-energy X-rays coming from these regions, where matter is pulled in, torn apart and sometimes ejected at unimaginable speed.
“Most of my friends I see every day are also in the astronomy program and we talk about our courses and hang out. We’ve built a connection through school,” says Keegan. “I’ve always been interested in black holes, specifically supermassive black holes, AGNs, that are actively accreting materials powering the environment”.
Research with impact: why it matters
Black holes shape the universe. Their gravitational pull and energetic outflows help form galaxies and forge the elements we rely on, like the iron in our blood and the calcium in our bones.
XRISM is like an MRI for the cosmos. It uses X-rays to reveal the invisible, giving scientists a high-resolution view of extreme events happening thousands or even millions of light-years away.
SMU students are at the table. This is not a simulation or classroom exercise. Students are analyzing real data from one of today's most advanced space missions.
“We think of black holes as things that suck everything in, but the reality is, they also throw material out,” says Dr. Gallo. “That material can crash into the galaxy around it, affecting how stars form and the galaxy evolves.”
Supporting student success through research excellence
Some of the most recent SMASHERS include postdoctoral fellows Yerong Xu and Adam Gonzalez, graduate students Jordan Adamski, Thomas Hodd, Margaret Buhariwalla and Cameron Semenchuck, and undergraduate students Jade Cameron, Lucienne Pothier-Bogoslowski and Keegan Riggs.
Lucy Pothier-Bogoslowski BSc’25, SMASHERS member and 2025 Governor General’s Silver Medal recipient
“These projects are hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars to build and launch,” says Dr. Gallo. “Now our students are working on the science that comes out of them.”
The XRISM funding is part of a larger $2.8 million announcement from the Canadian Space Agency, supporting space science at 14 Canadian universities.
For Saint Mary’s and the SMASHERS team, this is another example of how world-class research and hands-on student opportunity go hand in hand – blending community impact and academic excellence into a single, realized goal.
“Dr. Gallo is really kind, and he cares not only about your research but also about you as a person,” says Keegan. “He’s helped me with my research, of course, but also with everyday stuff.”
Visit smu.ca/astronomy-physics to explore research opportunities, student stories and more.