Science December 5, 2016

ALMA measures size of seeds of planets

Researchers using the ALMA, have for the first time, achieved a precise size measurement of small dust particles around a young star through radio-wave polarization.

Events December 2, 2016

Mitaka Open House Day 2016: More than 4500 Visitors Gathered at the Observatory in Autumn

The annual open house “Mitaka Open House Day” was held for 2 days on Friday, October 21, and Saturday, October 22, 2016.

Science November 28, 2016

Timing the Shadow of a Potentially Habitable Extrasolar Planet Paves the Way to Search for Alien Life

Researchers have observed the transit of a potentially Earth-like extrasolar planet known as K2-3d using the MuSCAT instrument on the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory 188-cm telescope.

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Science November 22, 2016

Record-breaking Faint Satellite Galaxy of the Milky Way Discovered

An international team led by researchers from Tohoku University has found an extremely faint dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The team's discovery is part of the ongoing Subaru Strategic Survey using Hyper Suprime-Cam.

Science November 21, 2016

Discovery of Unexpected Supersonic Events Everywhere on the Sun - Results from 5-minute Flight of the Sounding Rocket Experiment “CLASP” -

Having an imaging instrument on CLASP with the combination of high cadence and high sensitivity operating under seeing-free conditions led to the detection of many recurrent supersonic events at short timescales everywhere on the Sun.

Science October 31, 2016

A joint observation by solar observing satellites Hinode and IRIS quantitatively explores the formation of the solar chromosphere

Hinode and IRIS have shown that the dynamic solar chromosphere could be heated and formed by dissipation of the energy of waves.

Science October 13, 2016

Dense molecular gas disks drive the growth of supermassive black holes - Are supernova explosions the key?

Astronomers using ALMA and other telescopes, revealed that dense molecular gas disks a few hundred light years in scale located at the centers of galaxies supply gas to supermassive black holes situated within them.

Topics October 13, 2016

NAOJ “New Scientist Live” Exhibition Held in London

The "New Scientist Live" science exhibition, was held in a suburb of London for four days, September 22-25, 2016.

Events October 7, 2016

Announcement of Holding Mitaka Open House Day 2016

Mitaka Open House Day 2016 will be held on Oct. 21 and 22, 2016.

Science September 29, 2016

Discovery of an Extragalactic Hot Molecular Core

Astronomers have discovered a 'hot molecular core', a cocoon of molecules surrounding a newborn massive star, for the first time outside our Galaxy.