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AKARI's recent highlight

1. The release of the initial version AKARI infrared source catalogue

The initial version infrared source catalogue based on the AKARI All-Sky Survey is completed. The catalogue contains about three times large number of sources compared to the so far widely used IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite) catalogue. The AKARI catalogue is expected to lead the future astronomical researches.

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2. A Supergiant Making a Splash in a Cosmic River
- AKARI revealed the shock wave at the interface between stellar wind and interstellar matters -

A river of the interstellar medium meanders through deep space. When stars cross these rivers, they make astronomically large splashes. AKARI, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) infrared astronomical satellite with the European Space Agency (ESA) participation, has obtained a high-resolution image of Betelgeuse; a bright red supergiant in the constellation Orion located about 200 light year from the Earth, making such a big splash as the star goes across a cosmic river.

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3. The mystery of missing dust
- AKARI search for the cold dust in the globular clusters -

High sensitivity far-infrared observations with AKARI confirm that interstellar space in the globular clusters is void, despite of the expectation that globular clusters contains dusts ejected from old stars within the system. Where are the dusts gone? The results left us a big mystery on the evolution of globular clusters and the interstellar dust.

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4.Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud unveiled by AKARI
- A new insight to the dust processing in the supernova remnants -

AKARI has revealed unprecedented images of supernova remnants the Large Magellanic Cloud. The data shows presence of a significant amount of new, warm dust component. This implies that the efficiency of supernova remnant shocks in destroying the interstellar grains has been overestimated.

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November 19, 2008