Osaka Public University

Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo

National Institute for Fusion Science

Fukui University of Technology

RIKEN

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Summary of Presentation

A research group led by Visiting Associate Professor Shinji Fujita, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Public University (Visiting Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo), and including Associate Professor Jun Nishimura, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Associate Professor Atsushi Ito, Helical Research Department, National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Associate Professor Yusuke Miyamoto, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Associate Professor Yusuke Miyamoto of Fukui University of Technology, and RIKEN have identified about 140,000 interstellar molecular gas clouds, which are the raw materials of stars, from large-scale data of carbon monoxide molecules in the Milky Way Galaxy (the Milky Way Galaxy) observed in detail by the 45-m Nobeyama Space Radio Telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Using artificial intelligence, they estimated the distance between each of these 140,000 interstellar molecular gas clouds and determined the size and mass of the interstellar molecular gas clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy, The distribution of interstellar molecular gas clouds in the Galactic disk was successfully mapped in the most detailed manner in the world. This research result is the most detailed map of interstellar molecular gas clouds in the Galactic disk in the world. The results of this research are expected to have a ripple effect on various astronomical studies, such as the calculation of the frequency of collisions between interstellar molecular gas clouds, which is considered to be an important event for the formation of large star clusters.

The results of this research will be published online in " Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan " on January 27, 2023.

Figure: The upper panel shows the distribution of molecular gas clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy obtained by the Nobeyama 45m Space Radio Telescope (three-color composite image colored by 12CO for red, 13CO for green, and C18O for blue). The lower panel is an infrared observation by the Spitzer Space Telescope

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