Topics March 15, 2022

Subaru Telescope Scientist Wins 2021 ASJ Young Astronomer Award

Dr. Kenneth Wong, a Project Research Fellow at the Subaru Telescope, has been selected to receive the 2021 ASJ Young Astronomer Award.

Science February 25, 2022

Deep Neural Network to Find Hidden Turbulent Motion on the Sun

Scientists developed a neural network deep learning technique to extract hidden turbulent motion information from observations of the Sun. Tests on three different sets of simulation data showed that it is possible to infer the horizontal motion from data for the temperature and vertical motion. This technique will benefit solar astronomy and other fields such as plasma physics, fusion science, and fluid dynamics.

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Topics February 10, 2022

Tonga Eruption Observed by KAGRA Environmental Monitors

On January 15, 2022, at 04:14:45 (UTC), the undersea volcano of Hunga Tonga-Funga Ha'apai erupted and caused extensive damage there, which has attracted worldwide attention. The effects of this eruption were reported in Japan as well, e.g. tsunami waves capsizing ships, and were observed by the environmental monitors of KAGRA.

Topics January 5, 2022

A new-year’s message from the Director General, NAOJ

A new-year’s message from the Director General of NAOJ, Dr. Saku Tsuneta

Science December 23, 2021

Billions of Starless Planets Haunt Dark Cloud Cradles

An international team has found about 100 planets floating freely in space rather than orbiting stars. Extrapolating this sample to the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy suggests that there are billions of undiscovered starless planets tumbling aimlessly through space.

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Science December 14, 2021

Stellar “Ashfall” Could Help Distant Planets Grow

The world’s first 3D simulation simultaneously considering dust motion and growth in a disk around a young star has shown that large dust from the central region can be entrained by and then ejected by gas outflows, and eventually fall back onto the outer regions of the disk where it may enable planetesimal formation.

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Science December 10, 2021

Fiery Dragon’s Breath May Scorch Young Planets

The star EK Draconis has belched out a stream of flaming gas. This is the first time such a supermassive filament eruption has been observed on a Sun-like star. Since, EK Draconis is similar to the Sun in size, but younger, this could indicate that the Sun also produced such supermassive ejections long ago. Large amounts of flaming gas from the Sun would have made the environment harsh for the planets, including the young Earth where life was first emerging.

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Science December 2, 2021

Stellar Cocoon with Organic Molecules at the Edge of our Galaxy

For the first time, astronomers have detected a newborn star and the surrounding cocoon of complex organic molecules at the edge of our Galaxy, which is known as the extreme outer Galaxy. The discovery, which revealed the hidden chemical complexity of our Universe, appears in a paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

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Science November 13, 2021

Simulations Provide Clue to Missing Planets Mystery

Forming planets are one possible explanation for the rings and gaps observed in disks of gas and dust around young stars. But this theory has trouble explaining why it is rare to find planets associated with rings. New supercomputer simulations show that after creating a ring, a planet can move away and leave the ring behind.

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Topics November 10, 2021

Professor Satoshi Miyazaki Wins Nishina Memorial Prize

Professor Satoshi Miyazaki in the Advanced Technology Center at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has been chosen to receive the Nishina Memorial Prize in 2021.