Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

About: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is a facility organization based out in Tokyo, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Galaxy & Telescope. The organization has 4327 authors who have published 12054 publications receiving 208330 citations.

Subaru Near-Infrared Imaging of Herbig Ae Stars

Abstract: We report results of H -band (� = 1.65 � m) imaging observations of young intermediate-mass stars using the Subaru 8.2-m Telescope with the adaptive optics AO36 and the infrared coronagraph CIAO. The targets consist of 16 Herbig Ae/Be stars (15 Herbig Ae stars and one Herbig Be star) and four additional main-sequence stars with infrared excesses. Five protoplanetary disks have been spatially resolved around the Herbig Ae stars with ages of 2–8 Myr. The resolved disks have outer radii of several 100 AU, and their surface brightnesses range from 10 mag arcsec � 2 to 18 mag arcsec � 2 . The images reveal various morphologies in optically thick disks: spiral arms around AB Aur, a banana-split structure with an outer arm for HD 142527, a compact circumprimary disk of HD 150193, a faint discontinuous ring around HD 163296, and an unstructured face-on disk of HD 169142. The detection of an optically thick disk in scattered light implies that it is vertically flared, and intercepts stellar light at least in the outer region where those images were obtained. However, the surface brightness distribution, the resolved structure, and other observational characteristics suggest that the disks are unlikely to be continuously flared young disks with small grains well mixed with gas. The detection rate and the disk brightness do not correlate with the stellar age and the disk mass, but there is a tendency that the brightest disks are still surrounded by longlived envelopes (AB Aur, HD 100546, HD 142527). The significant diversity of the disk structure can be attributed to the multiplicity and the initial condition of the local star-forming environments. The detections of companion candidates around our targeted stars are also reported.

Observational Evidence for an Impact on the Main-belt Asteroid (596) Scheila

Abstract: An unexpected outburst was observed around (596) Scheila in 2010 December. We observed (596) Scheila soon after the impact using ground-based telescopes. We succeeded in the detection of a faint linear tail after 2011 February, which provides a clue to determine the dust ejection date. It is found that the dust particles ranging from 0.1-1 ?m to 100 ?m were ejected into the interplanetary space impulsively on December 3.5 ?1.0 day. The ejecta mass was estimated to be (1.5-4.9)?108?kg, suggesting that an equivalent mass of a 500-800?m diameter crater was excavated by the event. We also found that the shape of the light curve changed after the impact event probably because fresh material was excavated around the impact site. We conclude that a decameter-sized asteroid collided with (596) Scheila only eight days before the discovery.

Long-term optical continuum color variability of nearby active galactic nuclei

Abstract: We examine whether the spectral energy distribution of optical continuum emission of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) changes during flux variation, based on accurate and frequent monitoring observations of 11 nearby Seyfert galaxies and QSOs carried out in the B, V, and I bands for seven years by the MAGNUM telescope. The multi-epoch flux data in any two different bands obtained on the same night show a very tight linear flux-to-flux relationship for all target AGNs. The flux of the host galaxy within the photometric aperture is carefully estimated by surface brightness fitting to available high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images and MAGNUM images. The flux of narrow emission lines in the photometric bands is also estimated from available spectroscopic data. We find that the non-variable component of the host galaxy plus narrow emission lines for all target AGNs is located on the fainter extension of the linear regression line of multi-epoch flux data in the flux-to-flux diagram. This result strongly indicates that the spectral shape of AGN continuum emission in the optical region (~4400-7900 A) does not systematically change during flux variation. The trend of spectral hardening that optical continuum emission becomes bluer as it becomes brighter, which has been reported by many studies, is therefore interpreted as the domination of the variable component of the nearly constant spectral shape of an AGN as it brightens over the non-variable component of the host galaxy plus narrow lines, which is usually redder than AGN continuum emission.

The distance to a star forming region in the Outer arm of the Galaxy

Abstract: We performed astrometric observations with the VLBA of WB89 437, an H2O maser source in the Outer spiral arm of the Galaxy. We measure an annual parallax of 0.167±0.006 mas, corresponding to a heliocentric distance of 6.0±0.2 kpc or a Galactocentric distance of 13.4 ± 0.2 kpc. This value for the heliocentric distance is considerably smaller than the kinematic distance of 8.6 kpc. This confirms the presence of a faint Outer arm toward l = 135 ◦ . We also measured the full space motion of the object and find a large peculiar motion of �20 kms −1 toward the Galactic center. This peculiar motion explains the large error in the kinematic distance estimate. We also find that WB89 437 has the same rotation speed as the LSR, providing more evidence for a flat rotation curve and thus the presence of dark matter in the outer Galaxy.

Development of new experimental platform 'MARS'-Multiple Artificial-gravity Research System-to elucidate the impacts of micro/partial gravity on mice

Abstract: This Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency project focused on elucidating the impacts of partial gravity (partial g) and microgravity (μg) on mice using newly developed mouse habitat cage units (HCU) that can be installed in the Centrifuge-equipped Biological Experiment Facility in the International Space Station. In the first mission, 12 C57BL/6 J male mice were housed under μg or artificial earth-gravity (1 g). Mouse activity was monitored daily via downlinked videos; μg mice floated inside the HCU, whereas artificial 1 g mice were on their feet on the floor. After 35 days of habitation, all mice were returned to the Earth and processed. Significant decreases were evident in femur bone density and the soleus/gastrocnemius muscle weights of μg mice, whereas artificial 1 g mice maintained the same bone density and muscle weight as mice in the ground control experiment, in which housing conditions in the flight experiment were replicated. These data indicate that these changes were particularly because of gravity. They also present the first evidence that the addition of gravity can prevent decreases in bone density and muscle mass, and that the new platform ‘MARS’ may provide novel insights on the molecular-mechanisms regulating biological processes controlled by partial g/μg.