Tsumura KOJI Tsumura KOJI Tsumura KOJI

 It is a chance for you. You might notice something what everyone had missed.

People

Tsumura KOJI

1.What kind of the research are you doing?

I am studying the observational astronomy. Usually, stars and galaxies are the targets of astronomical observations. On the other hand, my observation target is the "cosmic infrared background radiation", in other words, "brightness of the universe". If we can precisely measure the brightness of the universe, we can know how many light sources such as stars and galaxies exist in the universe. Although galaxies those exist 10 billion light-years away are too dark to observe individually even with a large telescope, measurements of the brightness of the universe as an integrated light of such dark objects will reveal how many light sources exist in the universe including dark objects that cannot be detected individually. It is difficult to observe the brightness of the universe on the Earth, because atmospheric emissions are much brighter than the brightness of the universe. Therefore, we are also developing space-based telescopes boarded on sounding-rockets and space crafts. The final goal is to bring a telescope to Jupiter.

2.What is the reason for starting your study?

Physics class at high school was a trigger for me to have interest about the universe. In the high school physics, we learn that planetary motions and other things are described by Newtonian mechanics. I was impressed by knowing that we can understand various phenomena occurring in the universe by physics. Then, I started reading various books about the universe such as Blue Bucks series, and I learned that this universe was born about 15 billion years ago (at the precision at the time) by the Big Bang (*), and this fact was confirmed by astronomical observations. This made me want to learn astronomy, and I decided to go to Tohoku university, which has the astronomical department. (*: The big bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago at the current precision)

3.Message for prospective students

You can concentrate on investigating what you have interests in the university. It was the universe in my case, but the subjects of interest would be individuals. One of the biggest attractions of a big university like Tohoku University is that you can connect with experts in various fields. Find out what you think "interesting", and study it in the Tohoku university!

TOPNext