On January 25 (Sat.) and 26 (Sun.), 2025, we held an astronomy training for students from Suwa-Seiryo High School and Matsusho-Gakuen High School and Matsumoto-Agatagaoka High School in Nagano Prefecture. They estimated the distance to galaxies from photographs of galaxies and used the recession speeds of these galaxies to determine the age of the universe.
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of planetariums, samples from asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu, brought back by the Japanese asteroid probes Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, are simultaneously exhibited in a nationwide tour. The relay tour will continue until May 2025 through the cooperation of member museums of the Japan Planetarium Association.
Organizers: Planetarium 100th Anniversary Commemorative Project Executive Committee, Astromaterials Science Research Group (ASRG ISAS/JAXA)
Co-organizers: UTokyo Organization for Planetary Space Science (UTOPS), Nagoya City Science Museum
For details, please refer to the following URL.
UTokyo Organization for Space and Planetary Science (UTOPS) cooperated with the exhibition “Sample Return from Asteroids” held from December 17, 2024 (Tue) to January 13, 2025 (Mon) in the permanent exhibition room on the 2nd floor of the Earth Hall, National Museum of Nature and Science.
Samples from the asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu, brought back to Earth by JAXA’s asteroid explorers Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and sample from the asteroid Bennu, brought back to Earth by NASA’s asteroid explorer OSIRIS-REx, were displayed side by side. The samples of the three asteroids were exhibited to the public simultaneously for the first time in the world.
For details, please refer to the following URL.
Prof. Shogo Tachibana gave an invited talk on Ryugu and Bennu at the symposium “Life in Universe: Diversity in the building blocks, environments, and biological functions” at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan from November 26 (Wed.) to 29 (Fri.), 2024.
For details, please refer to the following URL.
https://pub.confit.atlas.jp/ja/event/mbsj2024/session/2R901-06
On Saturday, November 9, 2024, Professor Shogo Tachibana of UTOPS gave a space science class to the 6th graders of Nakamura Elementary School in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.
While reviewing and continuing the stories about Ryugu and Hayabusa2 told to the 5th graders in each class, Professor Tachibana answered questions about the space and the Earth that had been asked in advance.
Please refer to the following URL 「宇宙のお話」 for the scenes of the day.
Dr. George Cody, Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Science, visited UTOPS and gave lectures “The Ancient and complex history recorded in organic solids in meteorites, and why this is important!” (introductory) and “Complexity in primitive chondrite heating and fluid chemical histories: a potentially unrealized major complexity” (advanced).
He talked about the importance and what we can learn about extraterrestrial organic materials.
(2024.11.1)
On Saturday, October 19, 2024, we invited elementary and junior high school students and their parents to the Hongo Campus for the UTOPS event “Let’s Make Ryugu Bath Bombs!”
We talked about Ryugu and Hayabusa2, and made bath bombs together.
Professor Shogo Tachibana (UTOPS/Department of Earth and Planetary Science) won the 2023 Association Award from Japan Association of Mineralogical Sciences (JAMS) at the 2024 Annual Meeting of JAMS (September 12-14, 2024).
JAMS : https://jams-mineral.jp/about/award/
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, School of Science, UTokyo : https://www.eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/award20241002-2/
