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[Frontiers- Outer Space and the Oceans]

A team of Japanese astronomers resolved a circumstellar disk around the young lightweight star FN Tau. The diminutive star is located in a star-forming region toward the Constellation Taurus at a distance 460 light years from Earth. This research group used the Coronagraphic Imager with Adaptive Optics (CIAO) at the Subaru Telescope to directly image FN Tau and the lightweight disk of planet-forming material surrounding it (Figure 1). This star is merely 100 thousand years old and weighs only one tenth of the Sun.
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Figure 1:　FN Tau captured by CIAO instrument mounted on Subaru Telescope. This infrared image taken at 1.6 micron shows an almost face-on circular disk structure. The light from the central star FN Tau itself is blocked by the coronagraph mask. Somewhat symmetrical darker areas are the blocking by the secondary mirror support.

Figure 2:　Illustration of the protoplanetary disk around FN Tau. Because central star has only one tenth of the mass of the Sun, its gravity is small and the disk becomes thicker with increasing distance from the central star. Resultantly, the scattering of light from the star is more efficient than that by a flat disk and the disk appears brighter than expected.

Subaru Telescope
http://subarutelescope.org/index.html

National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NAOJ)
http://www.nao.ac.jp/E/index.html

[Frontiers- Outer Space and the Oceans]

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2008/01/20080116_sac_daichi_e.pdf

Example of Updating Using DAICHI Data Figure 1:　* Major buildings and other features were corrected based on images acquired by the DAICHI and the confirmation/verification through on-site survey (Map name: “Ayukawa”）

Figure 2:　Example of Extraction of Changes

Advanced Land Observing Satellite "Daichi"(ALOS)

[Event Info]

Invitation for the Events To Mark the Port Call of the Deep-sea Drilling Vessel "Chikyu" at Shingu Port


The Deep-sea Drilling Vessel "Chikyu" operated by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC; Mr. Yasuhiro Kato, President) will arrive at Shingu Port on February 5, after completing her first mission "Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE)" for Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP)(*1). To mark the port call of the "Chikyu" , we will hold International Symposium and the Open House of the "Chikyu". The "Chikyu" is scheduled to set sail from Shingu Port on February 12.
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(*1): Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international marine research drilling program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of Earth by monitoring and sampling subseafloor environments. Through multiple platforms, preeminent scientists explore IODP principal themes: the deep biosphere, environmental change, and solid earth cycles. IODP has been operating since October 2003, led by Japan and the USA. IODP now has 21 member countries.

CHIKYU Information Portal CHIKYU HAKKEN
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/chikyu/eng/CHIKYU/index.html