Division of Science, NAOJ

Division of Science

The Division of Science of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) is a new research unit established in April 2019.

The targets of modern astronomy are scattered across time and space, from the past to the future of the Universe and from cosmology to stars and planets. To tackle these questions, observational astronomy has developed techniques to cover broad expanses of the electromagnetic spectrum and non-electromagnetic observations. Additional progress is driven by theoretical astronomy, which is done with pencil and paper, and simulation astronomy, which studies astronomical phenomena reproduced inside a supercomputer. Astronomy research is entering a new era of rapid advances, driven by a fusion of theory and observation in which theoretical research analyzes and interprets observational results from new instruments at facilities like the Subaru Telescope or ALMA; multi-messenger astronomy which unveils the true nature of gravitational wave sources through a combination of electromagnetic and non-electromagnetic messengers; and multi-wavelength astronomy combining X-ray, optical infrared, and radio wave observations. The Division of Science is an institute for research into all aspects of modern astronomy, using new techniques including the fusion of theory and observation, multimessenger and multi-wavelength astronomy, in addition to conventional astronomy techniques.