Science August 4, 2023

Gas Streamers Feed Triple Baby Stars

New observations and simulations of three spiral arms of gas feeding material to three protostars forming in a trinary system have clarified the formation of multi-star systems.

Science July 19, 2023

VERA Unveils Surroundings of Rapidly Growing Black Holes

An international team of astronomers used the state-of-the-art capability of VERA, a Japanese network of radio telescopes operated by NAOJ, to uncover valuable clues about how rapidly growing “young” supermassive black holes form, grow, and possibly evolve into more powerful quasars.

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Science July 14, 2023

Stellar Cradles and Graves Seen in Farthest Galaxy Ever

New observations using the ALMA have distinguished the sites of star formation and a possible site of star death from the surrounding nebula in a galaxy 13.2 billion light-years away. This is the farthest that such structures have been observed.

Science July 4, 2023

Novel Microwave Isolator Points the Way to New Radio Cameras and Quantum Computers

Researchers at the NAOJ invented a novel microwave isolator and demonstrated for the first time its basic principle that enables small isolators that will be essential for future quantum computers.

Science June 28, 2023

ALMA Digs Deeper into the Mystery of Planet Formation

An international research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe disks around 19 protostars with a very high resolution to search for the earliest signs of planet formation. This survey was motivated by the recent findings that planet formation may be well-underway in the more-evolved proto-planetary disks, but until now there had been no systematic study to search for signs of planet formation in younger protostellar systems.

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Science June 22, 2023

Molecular Filament Shielded Young Solar System from Supernova

A team led by Doris Arzoumanian at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan proposed a new explanation of how the Solar System acquired the amount of isotopes measured in meteorites while surviving the supernova shock.

Science June 20, 2023

Observations of High-Mass Star Seeds Defy Models

Astronomers have mapped 39 interstellar clouds where high-mass stars are expected to form. This large data set shows that the accepted model of low-mass star formation needs to be expanded to explain the formation of high-mass stars. This suggests the formation of high-mass stars is fundamentally different from the formation of low-mass stars, not just a matter of scale.

Science June 15, 2023

Unburying CIZA Galaxy Cluster

Now astronomers have used a newly upgraded world-leading radio telescope to unbury the radio emissions from a galaxy cluster known as CIZA1359. The signal has until now been buried in noise from a nearby foreground object.

Science June 7, 2023

Tracking Vanished Massive Stars by their Chemical Footprints

Astronomers have discovered a star on the outskirts of the Milky Way Galaxy with a chemical composition unlike anything they have ever seen. It matches theoretical expectations for the chemical footprint left behind by very massive, very early stars. This is the clearest evidence yet that the first stars included very massive stars. Models show such stars would not have left behind any other remnants, so a footprint like this is the best evidence that can be hoped for.

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Science May 18, 2023

First Observed Radio Waves from a Type Ia Supernova

For the first time, astronomers have observed radio waves emitted by a Type Ia supernova, a type of explosion originating from a white dwarf star. This provides important clues to understand how white dwarfs explode.

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