The University of Tokyo and Konica Minolta Produce a Planetarium Program, Proposing a New Way of Public Outreach in Scientific Research

The project team of the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO; principthe installation of a prototype 1-m telescope at the same site, and have kicked off its astronomical observations since March 2009. Cerro Chajnantor is 5640 m in elevation, making the telescope at the highest altitude among any ground-based telescopes in the world. Because such a high altitude offers extremely dry and thin atmosphere, it gets possible to observe the sky at unprecedented wavelengths, such as infrared, which astronomers have never been able to use for their research from the ground. This great advantage brings the TAO team a lot of new results by observations in Paα emission line, an infrared radiation from ionized hydrogen, and in the 30 micron mid-infrared waveband. (Some of the successful results are press-released in July and December 2009.)

• A telescope in Atacama catches the first 38-micron cosmic infrared light from the ground (3 Dec 2009)
• A 1-m telescope of the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory captures infrared light from hydrogen gas at the heart of the Milky Way (2 July 2009)

In order to make it easier for the public people to understand the new results, the University of Tokyo and Konica Minolta produced a joint planetarium program "Galaxies Far, Far Away - TAO Reveals a New Picture of the Universe". They expect that a planetarium program, one of the best entertaining media, can attract people who are not familiar with astronomy. There has been no precedent for this sort of activity, and so the approach is getting more attention as a new way of public outreach in scientific research.

▲ The title screen of the planetarium program produced by the University of Tokyo and Konica Minolta. It reads "Galaxies Far, Far Away - TAO Reveals a New Picture of the Universe".

The story in the program is like a drama --- One day, a young astronomer comes across a curious boy in Chile. Under the stars, they hold a conversation and get closer to the subject on what the TAO project is. The viewers will enjoy the drama story, as well as buetiful starry skies in Atacama and even the actual scientific data. This will help them to get familiar with the latest astronomy. The program will be screened at Konica Minolta's planetarium "Man-ten" and about 20 planetaria and science museums in Japan, from 20 March to 5 September, 2010. It has been decided that the program will soon be translated in English, and they are planing to show the program overseas. Please stay tuned!

You can check the schedule and contents of the program on the web page of Konica Minolta's planetarium "Man-ten" at
http://konicaminolta.jp/manten/index.html