is a Japanese
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
. He works at
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
The (NAOJ) is an astronomy, astronomical research organisation comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii and Chile. It was established in 1988 as an amalgamation of three existing research organizations - the To ...
's Mizusawa VLBI observatory in
Ōshū, and was the Science Team sub-Leader of the
MUSES-C
was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis.
''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C fo ...
mission. He has discovered three
asteroids
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
.
With colleagues at the observatory, he has created a detailed
topographic map
In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...
of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
.
References
External links
"Detailed map shows dry Moon" - Canada"Crustal thickness of the Moon: Implications for farside basin structures" - GRL
"Moonlight project - Observations of Lunar rotation and Ephemeris by optical methods on the Moon"
"New high-res maps suggest little water in moon" - Universe Today"CCD Centroiding Experiment for the Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission (JASMINE) and In Situ Lunar Orientation Measurement (ILOM)""Development of an LD pumped Nd:YAG Oscillator for Space-borne LaserAItimeter"
Discoverers of asteroids
*
20th-century Japanese astronomers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
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