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Ending the mystery of a century
Expectations on the ILC's realization

Ichinoseki Science Café (sponsored by Ichinoseki City and the Southern Iwate Regional Development Bureau) was held at the Ichinoseki Civic Center in Omachi on January 23 to create momentum for attracting the International Linear Collider (ILC). At the ‘Space x ILC’ collaboration event, Mareki Honma, the director of the Mizusawa VLBI Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, served as the lecturer and explained in detail about the black hole that was successfully photographed for the first time in the world. He also gave words of encouragement toward the realization of the ILC.
 

Science Café which kicked off in 2014, is an event where participants can freely talk with researchers in a café-style setting so that they can get in touch with the world of science. This event was a collaboration event between the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Mizusawa, which celebrated its 120th anniversary and has made various achievements, and the ILC, which aims to realize the mysteries of the universe. In order to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, there was a cap on the number of people who could attend the venue. Online participation was also possible. Twenty-five people attended the venue, and about 40 people including from outside the prefecture, such as from Kagoshima and Hiroshima, participated online.

Mr. Homma, who gave a lecture themed ‘From Iwate to a black hole, the journey of the galaxy express’, described the significance of a large-scale telescope as "improving ones eyesight," and introduced radio telescopes at four locations in Japan, including the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) which if converted to eye sight would be equivalent to 100,000 (times the power of eyesight), and the VLBI (Very Long Baseline Radio Interference Method) giant radio telescope that was used for black hole photography is equivalent to 3 million times.

The black hole is “a celestial body that has become too heavy and collapses. It is a strange celestial body that cannot be tackled by using common knowledge." Regarding the success of the image, he said, "The result put an end to the century old question of whether black holes exist or not."

Regarding the connection with the ILC, "it’d be a stretch to say that there is something we can do directly together as a field, but ILC research is connected to the universe so our fields are related in terms of the bigger picture. The ILC is also the study of fundamental science, "it will clearly connect us to the unknown world," he said, "we need the support of the people to promote science, and we hope you all will."

 

In addition, an introduction to the relationship between Kenji Miyazawa and the latitude observatory was given. Participants asked various questions about the structure of black holes and the captured image, demonstrating their high level of interest.

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Original Iwate Nichinichi article Jan 24 2021
Translated by Aimi Bell