NAOJ ALMA exhibited a booth at the Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2018, which was held at Makuhari Messe from May 20 through 24, 2018 as has happened in previous years. The booth attracted not only researchers of various fields related to geoscience and planetary science but also many young people including high school students who gave a presentation on their research at a session for high school students, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. At the booth, ALMA staff members explained the ALMA telescope with a focus on observation results of planetary forming regions and astronomical bodies in the solar system. Although not directly related to geoscience, some visitors expressed their interest in the latest news that oxygen was detected with ALMA in a galaxy located 13.28 billion light years away as it was announced just before the event. The NAOJ TMT Project Office set up a booth next to ALMA this year too. Taking this opportunity, researchers explained the difference of target objects between the large optical telescope TMT and the radio telescope ALMA.

Exhibition at the ALMA booth.
Credit: NAOJ

On May 23, a session titled “New Development of Planetary Science Explored by ALMA” was given. The presentation included ALMA observation results of planetary forming regions, the Sun, Venus and Neptune, showing new achievements being made by ALMA in the field of planetary science.

Credit: NAOJ