Miraikan (the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) opened a new permanent exhibition which presents the technologies and observation results of the ALMA telescope.

The exhibition titled “ALMA-Exploring the Invisible Universe” was installed as part of the permanent exhibition “Explore the Frontiers” on the fifth floor of Miraikan. The exhibition includes the panel exhibition to present the overview, technical features, and scientific goals of ALMA, and three types of superconducting receivers and its sensing part SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) device, which is the heart of the receiver, developed by NAOJ in cooperation with other partner institutions. Please come to see the state-of-the-art instruments to observe the invisible universe laid out beautifully in the spotlight. The exhibition also presents video explaining the scientific results obtained by the latest ALMA observations, as well as video showing interviews with three ALMA researchers. In the interview, Tetsuo Hasegawa, Distinguished Professor at the NAOJ Chile Observatory, talks about the history of the ALMA construction and his experience in leading the project in international partnership; Yoshinori Uzawa, Professor at the NAOJ Advanced Technology Center, recounts the development story of the ALMA superconducting receiver; and Nami Sakai, Chief Scientist at RIKEN, introduces the observation results of star forming regions with ALMA.

　Credit: NAOJ