A research article led by Dr. Takuya Hashimoto at the University of Tsukuba has received the 2021 Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan Excellent Paper Award. This prize is presented annually to the author(s) of the most outstanding paper(s) published to the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan during the past five years

Hashimoto et al. “Big Three Dragons: A z = 7.15 Lyman-break galaxy detected in [O III] 88 μm, [C II] 158 μm, and dust continuum with ALMA”, P
 

Credit:Takuya Hashimoto, All rights reserved

Dr. Hashimoto used ALMA to observe a galaxy B14-65666 and successfully detected radio emission from oxygen, carbon, and dust. The galaxy is located 13.1 billion light-years away. Detailed image analysis revealed that a galaxy collision and merger have triggered the formation of star clusters seen widely in this galaxy. Dr. Hashimoto’s work has attracted worldwide attention, and the paper has been cited 127 times as of February 2022.

In accepting the award, Dr. Hashimoto said, “I am very happy to receive such a wonderful prize with my co-authors. This achievement was made possible by the excellent sensitivity and resolution of ALMA. In fact, our aim was to win the PASJ excellent paper award as we were preparing the manuscript around 2018. I was so excited to see this become a reality, and I am truly overwhelmed. I will continue to work hard to produce outstanding research results in the future.”

For more information on this research, please see the press release “ALMA Finds Earliest Example of Merging Galaxies” dated June 18, 2019