Second Alignment Plane of Solar System Discovered After Accounting for Galactic Gravity
A study of comet motions indicates that the Solar System has a second alignment plane. Analytical investigation of the orbits of long-period comets shows that…
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Astronomers Spot Pair of Massive Baby Stars Growing in Salty Cosmic Soup
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers spotted a pair of massive baby stars growing in salty cosmic soup. Each star is shrouded by…
Evolved Binary Star System Wolf-Rayet 112: Unraveling a Spiral Stream of Dusty Embers From a Massive Stellar Forge
With almost two decades of mid-infrared (IR) imaging from the largest observatories around the world including the Subaru Telescope, a team of astronomers was able…
Stellar Egg Hunt: Tracing Evolution From Embryo to Baby Star
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) took a census of stellar eggs in the constellation Taurus and revealed their evolution state. This census…
Artificial Intelligence Identifies 80,000 Spiral Galaxies – Promises More Astronomical Discoveries in the Future
Astronomers have applied artificial intelligence (AI) to ultra-wide field-of-view images of the distant Universe captured by the Subaru Telescope, and have achieved a very high…
Surprisingly Recent Galaxy Discovered Using Machine Learning – May Be the Last Generation Galaxy in the Long Cosmic History
Breaking the lowest oxygen abundance record. New results achieved by combining big data captured by the Subaru Telescope and the power of machine learning have…
Pathbreaking Platform for Quantum Simulation: A Metal-Like Quantum Gas
Electronic properties of condensed matter are often determined by an intricate competition between kinetic energy that aims to overlap and delocalize electronic wave functions across…
New Origin of Supermassive Black Holes Revealed by Supercomputer Simulation
Computer simulations conducted by astrophysicists at Tohoku University in Japan, have revealed a new theory for the origin of supermassive black holes. In this theory,…
Quasi-Periodic Flickers in Millimeter-Waves Detected From Heart of Milky Way
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found quasi-periodic flickers in millimeter-waves from the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius (Sgr) A*. The team…
New Spectrograph on Subaru Telescope Shows “Earth-Like” TRAPPIST-1 Planetary Orbits Not Misaligned
Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope have determined that the Earth-like planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system are not significantly misaligned with the rotation of the star….
Missing-Link in Planet Evolution Found – Predicted to Exist More Than 70 Years Ago
For the first time ever, astronomers have detected a 1.3 km radius body at the edge of the Solar System. Kilometer sized bodies like the…
During Planet Formation “Safety Zone” Saves Giant Moons From Fatal Plunge
Numerical simulations showed that the temperature gradient in the disk of gas around a young gas giant planet could play a critical role in the…
Secrets of Titan’s Atmosphere Revealed – Galactic Cosmic Rays Affect Saturn’s Largest Moon
Planetary scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) revealed the secrets of the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. The team found…
Attosecond Control of an Atomic Electron Cloud Using Synchrotron Radiation
Researchers at SAGA Light Source, the University of Toyama, Hiroshima University and the Institute for Molecular Science have demonstrated a method to control the shape…
A Fireball Flew Over Kyoto, Japan – Now Scientists Know What It Was and Where It Came From
At around 1 a.m. local standard time on April 29, 2017, a fireball flew over Kyoto, Japan. Compared to other fireballs spotted from Earth, it…
Astronomers Analysis Reveals Outbound Comets Likely of Alien Origin
Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) have analyzed the paths of two objects heading out of the Solar System forever and determined…
Stellar Heavy Metals Can Map Evolution of the Milky Way and Other Galaxies
Astronomers have cataloged signs of 9 heavy metals in the infrared light from supergiant and giant stars. New observations based on this catalog will help…
More Than a Trillion Stars Reveal Cores of Massive Galaxies Had Already Formed 1.5 Billion Years After Big Bang
A distant galaxy more massive than our Milky Way — with more than a trillion stars — has revealed that the ‘cores’ of massive galaxies…