#naoj

[spacenscience]

Young Suns of NGC 7129

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler, Roberto Colombari, Eric Recurt, Adam Block - Additional Data: Subaru (NAOJ)

[connyak]

[the-telescope-times]

New Mystery Discovered Regarding Active Asteroid Phaethon

Based on a new study of how near-Earth asteroid Phaethon reflects light at different angles, astronomers think that its surface may reflect less light than previously thought. This is an exciting mystery for the recently approved DESTINY+ mission to investigate when it flies past Phaethon.

The way an object reflects light depends not only on its albedo (the percentage of light it reflects) but also on the illumination angle. One particular effect that scientists are interested in is how the polarization changes when sunlight reflects off the surface of an asteroid.

Scientifically, light is referred to as electromagnetic waves; the waves create changes in the electric and magnetic fields. The directions of these changes can either be random or aligned. When the electromagnetic effects of light are aligned, the light is said to be polarized.

An international team, including astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Seoul National University, Chiba Institute of Technology, and other institutes, used the 1.6-m Pirka Telescope at Nayoro Observatory in Hokkaido Japan to observe the near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon.

Read more ~ spacedaily.com/

[matryokeshi]

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

[matryokeshi]

The 65cm Telescope Dome (Observatory History Museum) on the premises of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

[matryokeshi]

The 20cm Telescope Dome on the premises of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

[the-telescope-times]

Subaru Telescope Detects the Shadow of a Gas Cloud in an Ancient Proto-supercluster

A team led by researchers from Osaka Sangyo University, with members from Tohoku University, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and others, has used the Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope to create the most-extensive map of neutral hydrogen gas in the early universe (Above). This cloud appears widely spread out across 160 million light-years in and around a structure called the proto-supercluster. It is the largest structure in the distant universe, and existed some 11.5 billion years ago. Such a huge gas cloud is extremely valuable for studying large-scale structure formation and the evolution of galaxies from gas in the early universe, and merits further investigation.

Read more ~ NAOJ.org

Image: The distribution of galaxies in the proto-supercluster region 11.5 billion years ago (top left), and the Subaru Telescope Suprime-Cam image used in this work (right, larger image). Neutral hydrogen gas distribution is superposed on the Subaru image. The red color indicates denser regions of the neutral hydrogen gas. Cyan squares correspond to member galaxies in the proto-supercluster, while objects without cyan squares are foreground galaxies and stars. The distribution of neutral hydrogen gas does not align perfectly with the galaxies.     Credit: Osaka Sangyo University/NAOJ

[wakakotachibana]

太陽塔望遠鏡（アインシュタイン塔）国立天文台三鷹キャンパス Solar Tower Telescope, Mitaka City, Tokyo