Two years of collaboration between researchers from Taiwan, the US and South Korea recently found that the outer Solar System might not be as crowded as astronomers thought.
The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) — a cooperation project between Academia Sinica’s Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, National Central University’s (NCU) Institute of Astronomy and Yonsei University in South Korea — observed orbiting objects in the Kuiper Belt, the region beyond Neptune, since 2005, NCU said in a press release yesterday.
The research targeted objects — mostly chunks of rocks or ice — between 3km and 28km in diameter by recording the luminosity of stars as the objects passed and occluded them, NCU said.
The method made TAOS the only research team in the world that could probe these objects, as they were too small to be seen directly through a telescope, the school said.
“We were able to observe the outer Solar System ... These objects were very small, only larger than an ordinary track field,” NCU professor of astrology Chen Wen-ping (陳文屏) said.
Analysis of some 7 billion bits of data collected by the project over the past two years showed that no occultation was recorded, NCU said.
NCU vice chancellor Ip Wing-huen (葉永烜), a noted astronomer in Taiwan, said the research team estimated there were between 10 times to 100 times less orbiting objects in the Kuiper Belt than astronomers had previously estimated.
The research was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters last Wednesday.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is