NAGATA, Tetsuya, D. Sc. (Kyoto Univ.), Astrophysics

Nagata's work includes the construction of new instruments and their 
application to research in areas of the interstellar medium, the Galactic 
center, and star formation.  Nagata led the efforts to build the Infrared 
Survey Facility (IRSF) 1.4-m telescope at Sutherland, South Africa.  IRSF 
is a dedicated 3-band (J, H, and Ks) survey telescope constructed and 
operated by Nagoya University in collaboration of South African 
Astronomical Observatory and several Japanese astronomical institutes.

One of the aims of Nagata's research is to understand the formation and 
evolution of stars in the special environment of the central region of our 
Galaxy.  He also leads the project of probing hydrogen molecules in warm 
interstellar medium with the detection of their mid-infrared pure-
rotational lines. 

A group of us at Department of Astronomy have also considered constructing 
a new telescope with new technology such as a segmented primary mirror and 
an ultra-light mounting, at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory.

Selected Recent Papers (2001-2003)

The Infrared Counterpart of the X-Ray Nova XTE J1720-318
   Nagata, T., et al.
   2003, Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan, 55, L73-76

Simultaneous Optical and Near-Infrared Spectropolarimetry of Type 2 Seyfert 
Galaxies
   Watanabe, M., Nagata, T., et al.
   2003, Astrophys. J., 591, 714-732

Construction of Wide Field Cryogenic Telescope
   Ando, M., Nagata, T., et al.
   2002, Experimental Astronomy, 13, 119-134

3.4 micron feature on the shoulder of ice-band absorptions in three luminous 
young stellar objects: IRAS 18511+0146, IRAS 21413+5442, and IRAS 04579+4703.
   Ishii, M., Nagata, T., Chrysostomou, A., and Hough, J. H.
   2002, Astron. J., 124, 2790-2798

A Highly Reddened Star Cluster Embedded in the Galactic Plane 
   Nakaya, N., Nagata, T., et al.
   2001, Astron. J., 122, 876-884