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Astrophysics (A) Lab
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A lab that uses radio waves to explore how stars and galaxies form and grow, with the interstellar medium at its core.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring star and galaxy formation through the interstellar medium
The Astrophysics Lab centers on the interstellar medium, the origin of all celestial objects, and works to understand the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies, and other objects.
Using millimeter and submillimeter radio observations, the lab aims to understand how stars and galaxies have formed and evolved over the 13.8-billion-year history of the universe.
The lab has two research groups, one on galaxy formation in the early universe and one on star formation and molecular clouds in the Milky Way, and it approaches the physics of celestial object formation in diverse ways.
The lab carries out a full chain of experimental and observational research that begins with technology development, and its website describes it as a distinctive lab that is unusual even by national standards.
Key terms
- Interstellar medium
- Cold matter that gives birth to stars. It is made of molecules, atoms, and dust, emits no visible light, and gives off faint radio waves
- Submillimeter waves
- A band of radio waves used for observation together with millimeter waves. They are especially powerful for studying the young universe
- Molecular cloud
- A birthplace of stars made of cold gas and dust. Its physical state and motion can be studied in detail through radio emission-line observations
NewsLab news
Featured research by a lab researcher: 'The Stormy Ancient Giant Barred Spiral Galaxy'
Featured research by lab faculty: 'Discovery of a Giant Spiral 11.5 Billion Light-Years Away'
A doctoral student won the Best Presentation Award at the Cosmic Radio Astronomy Forum Symposium 2025
ResearchResearch themes
The lab focuses on the interstellar medium, the origin of all celestial objects, and aims to understand through millimeter and submillimeter observations how stars and galaxies have formed and evolved over the 13.8-billion-year history of the universe. It observes the faint radio waves emitted by the interstellar medium and investigates the various phenomena occurring there from its distribution and physical state.
*Illustrative imageGalaxy formation and evolution
Using submillimeter telescopes, the lab traces the evolution of the interstellar medium and the history of star formation. Searches for protogalaxies with the ALMA telescope have begun to reveal how stars were born roughly several hundred million years after the Big Bang.
*Illustrative imageStar formation and the interstellar medium
The lab observes emission-line spectra of atoms and molecules in radio waves to investigate the physical state and motion of interstellar molecular clouds. Using CO molecular observation data of the Milky Way plane and the Magellanic Clouds, it works to clarify, for example, how massive star clusters form through collisions between molecular clouds.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Astrophysics Lab consist of faculty, researchers, a secretary, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.
- ProfessorYoichi Tamura
- Associate ProfessorKengo Tachihara
- Assistant ProfessorHiroaki Yamamoto
- YLC Assistant ProfessorHideki Umehata
- Project Assistant ProfessorJianfeng Li
- Project Assistant ProfessorMasato Hagimoto
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “CSIRO ScienceImage 559 Radio Telescopes at the Australia Telescope Compact Array” division, CSIRO / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Galaxy formation and evolution: “The Atacama Large Millimeter submillimeter Array (ALMA) by night under the Magellanic Clouds” ESO/C. Malin / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Star formation and the interstellar medium: “Large Magellanic Cloud” ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Space Physics (Infrared) (Uir) Lab): “Technicians check out the mounting structure of the infrared telescope installed in NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) (ED )” NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center / NASA/Tony Landis / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Galaxy Evolution (Ω) Lab): “UGC 1810 and UGC 1813 in Arp 273 (captured by the Hubble Space Telescope)” NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Heliospheric Plasma Physics (SW) Lab): “Antenna array of URAN-2 radio teelscope” YeS (Serge Yerin) / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fundamental Particle Physics (F) Lab): “Fermilab g-2 (E989) ring” Reidar Hahn / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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