Topics February 8, 2024

NASA Astrophysics Division Director Dr. Clampin Lectures at Subaru Users’ Meeting

Dr. Mark Clampin, Astrophysics Division Director, NASA Science Mission Directorate, presented a lecture on January 24, 2024, at a special session of the Subaru Users’ Meeting held at NAOJ Mitaka Campus.

Topics February 8, 2024

ESA Strategy, Planning and Coordination Office Directorate of Science Former Head Fabio Favata Visits NAOJ

Fabio Favata, who headed the Strategy, Planning and Coordination Office Directorate of Science of the European Space Agency until last November before moving to the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, and Prof. Richard de Grijs, Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute-Beijing, visited NAOJ Mitaka Campus on January 9, 2024.

Science February 1, 2024

Ancient Gas Outflow Suppressed Star Formation

Astronomers have found the earliest known example of a galaxy hosting an active supermassive black hole expelling large quantities of molecular gas. This outflow will suppress star formation in the galaxy. These results will help us to understand how black holes and galaxies have evolved together over the history of the Universe.

Science January 18, 2024

M87* One Year Later: Proof of a persistent black hole shadow

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has released new images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, using data from observations taken in April 2018.

Science December 15, 2023

New Red Galaxies Turn Out to be Already Known Blue Galaxies

Not all discoveries turn out to be actual new discoveries. This was the case for the extremely red objects (EROs) found in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data. Analysis shows that they are very similar to blue-excess dust obscured galaxies (BluDOGs) already reported in Subaru Telescope data.

Topics December 14, 2023

NAOJ and UNTEC Enter Agreement for Production of ALMA Receivers

NAOJ has recently signed an agreement with University of Chile / UNTEC (Foundation for Technological Transfer) for the production of hardware components for the ALMA Band 2 receivers.

Science December 4, 2023

10 Billion Year, 50,000 Light-year Journey to Black Hole

A star near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy originated outside of the Galaxy according to a new study. This is the first time a star of extragalactic origin has been found in the vicinity of the super massive black hole.

Science November 15, 2023

ALMA Demonstrates Highest Resolution Yet

ALMA has demonstrated the highest resolution yet with observations of an old star. The observations show that the star is surrounded by a ring-like structure of gas and that gas from the star is escaping to the surrounding space. Future observations with the newly demonstrated high resolution are expected to elucidate, not only the end of a star’s life, but also the beginning, when planets are still forming.

Science November 10, 2023

Rapid Increase in Oxygen in Early Universe

Using new data from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have measured the abundance of oxygen in the early Universe. The findings show that the amount of oxygen in galaxies increased rapidly within 500-700 million years after the birth of the Universe, and has remained as abundant as observed in modern galaxies since then. This early appearance of oxygen indicates that the elements necessary for life were present earlier than expected.

Science November 3, 2023

Black Holes are Messy Eaters

New observations down to light-year scale of the gas flows around a supermassive black hole have successfully detected dense gas inflows and shown that only a small portion (about 3 percent) of the gas flowing towards the black hole is eaten by the black hole. The remainder is ejected and recycled back into the host galaxy.