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X-ray Astronomy at JAXA Japan's Leading-Edge X-ray Astronomy: Unveiling the Mysteries of a Dynamic Universe
Japan's World-Leading X-ray Astronomy

It is said that Japan is on the cutting edge of X-ray astronomy. How did Japan get there? We asked Prof. Yasuo Tanaka, who has been involved in the Japanese X-ray astronomy program since its dawn.
Yasuo Tanaka Professor Emeritus, JAXA Guest Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany
The Beginning of Japanese X-ray Astronomy

The history of X-ray astronomy begins in 1962, when Riccardo Giacconi (the 2002 Nobel Prize winner in Physics) discovered an unexpected cosmic source of X-rays, using an observation rocket.
The following year, the late Prof. Minoru Oda was invited to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by one of the first discoverers of X-ray-emitting stars, Prof. Bruno Rossi. There, Prof. Oda invented the famous modulation collimator. After that, I went to Leiden University in the Netherlands to work on X-ray observation using balloons. Prof. Oda returned home in 1966, and started an X-ray astronomy group at the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo. He established the foundation of Japan's X-ray astronomy research with Prof. Sachio Hayakawa of Nagoya University, who had already begun X-ray observation using Japanese rockets. The next year, I also returned, to the position of Associate Professor at Nagoya University.
It was very fortunate for us to have such great leaders, Prof. Oda and Prof. Hayakawa, at the dawn of Japanese X-ray astronomy. At that time, though only rocket observation was available to us, we developed our own observation instruments, and vigorously carried out observations. As a result, X-ray astronomy developed in Japan earlier than in the rest of the world.

In 1970, under Giacconi's leadership, the first X-ray astronomy satellite, Uhuru, was launched. In the same year, Japan succeeded in launching its first artificial satellite, OSUMI (the fourth in the world), and proved it was capable of launching a Japanese-made scientific satellite. Right after that successful launch, preparation began for the launch of an X-ray astronomy satellite, CORSA, lead primarily by Prof. Oda.

In 1976, six years after the launch of Uhuru, Japan launched its first X-ray astronomy satellite, CORSA, but unfortunately that launch failed because of a malfunction in the rocket control. Three years later, CORSA-b was launched successfully, thanks to the efforts of Prof. Oda and the hard work of scientists and engineers. This was Japan's first X-ray astronomy satellite, named HAKUCHO. Though it had already been nine years since the success of Uhuru, Japan became only the third country to acquire an X-ray astronomy satellite, following the United States and Britain. HAKUCHO, which was carrying Prof. Oda's modulation collimator, achieved remarkable results in neutron-star research by finding many X-ray burst sources, whose existence had only just been discovered.
The success of HAKUCHO was a big step forward for the Japanese X-ray astronomy group, and allowed it to catch up to the world's leading countries.



Dr. Minoru Oda
Uhuru Illustration
 
Yasuo Tanaka
Dr. Yasuo Tanaka Photo Yasuo Tanaka is a highly cited astrophysicist who has been a leading researcher in X-ray astrophysics since the dawn of X-ray astronomy.
Prof. Tanaka graduated from Osaka University. From 1962, as an associate professor at the School of Science at Nagoya University, he led research with Prof. Sachio Hayakawa, one of the founders of Japan's X-ray and infrared astronomy. At the same time, he also worked as Senior Scientist at Leiden University in the Netherlands from 1963 to 1967, and contributed to the establishment of Europe's space-science group. In 1967, he returned to Japan to prepare for its first X-ray observatory, CORSA, and helped establish Japanese X-ray astronomy with the late Minoru Oda and Sachio Hayakawa. In 1974, he was appointed professor at the Aeronautical Research Institute of Tokyo University (in 1981 renamed the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science). Starting with the GINGA mission in 1987, Prof. Tanaka took charge of Japan's X-ray observatories, and became the head of Japanese X-ray astronomy. He was Deputy Director-General at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (now the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA) from 1992 to 1994. He has been Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany since 1997. He is also Professor Emeritus at JAXA.
1 | 2 | 3 Japan's X-ray Astronomy Research Strategy
1. What Is X-ray Astronomy? 2. Japan's Leading-Edge X-ray Astronomy 3. ASTRO-EII Launched into Space - Summer 2005
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