Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Tohoku University

Researcher

Tenure in FRIS 2016.4-2018.9

Hirofumi Noda

Assistant ProfessorAdvanced Basic Science

Mentor Information
Associate Professor
Masayuki Akiyama (Graduate School of Science)
Research Fields Astrophysics
Research Subjects
  • X-ray observation of Active Galactic Nucleus
  • Thermal design of instrument onboard satellite
Academic Society Membership The Astronomical Society of Japan, The Physical Society of Japan
Research Outline  

A center of every galaxy harbors a Supermassive Black Hole (BH) with a mass of about 105-10 Solar mass. When a lot of materials are swallowed into the BH, it becomes an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), emitting lights in various wavelengths, and forming fast outflows. My studies aim to observationally reveal how the lights and outflows are generated in AGNs. Their generation is now one of the hottest topics in astrophysics, because it is deeply related to a relativistic space-time structure very near a BH, and the evolution of a host galaxy around a BH.

My method is X-ray observations of AGNs by utilizing X-ray instruments onboard science satellites. Because the instruments are often exposed to optical and infrared irradiations from the sun and earth at satellite orbits, temperatures of X-ray detectors cannot be kept in allowed ranges without special designs in space. Then, in my studies, I develop thermal designs of X-ray instruments by applying thermal engineering devices, heaters, coolers, and cryogens, for future satellites. After developing instruments, we load them onto satellites, launch them by rockets, and observe X-ray signals from AGNs to examine structures and extreme conditions of materials around BHs.

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