創刊簡介

Dear friends and young students,

The ASIAA is very happy to bring you the latest news in the astronomical world. as part of the Academia Sinica, our institute works at the frontier of research with all the best instruments in the world, including the ones built by Taiwan. In this golden age of astronomy, we have many new discoveries spanning the distance from our own solar system to the very edge of the universe. By using the light from the heavens, we study the physical universe back to the origin of time and try to understand how nature works, how our universe has become the way it is, how our earth is made, and what our future will be. In Taiwan, modern astronomical research has become a very exciting field in the last twenty years. We would like to show you what we are finding out about the universe, and how you can learn more about it, and how lucky that we live in this time when we are able to begin to understand so much about our universe.

Paul Ho, ASIAA

親愛的朋友以及青年學子們：

中研院天文所非常高興經由這份精美的天聞季報，為各位介紹天文學界的一些最新發現。 身為中央研究院的一份子，天文所不僅從事全球最先進的天文研究、擁有世界一流的精良儀器，更令人驕傲的是，其中部分設備完全由臺灣自行研發製造。這是一個天文學的黃金時代，新的發現無遠弗屆。近如太陽系，遠至宇宙邊際。藉由來自天際的微光，我們探索宇宙的邊疆，追溯時間的起源，嘗試了解自然界如何運作、宇宙如何演變、地球如何成形、以及未來我們將去向何方。過去二十年間，最新的天文學研究在臺灣儼然已成為一個振奮人心的領域。在有關宇宙的最新發現上、在這些結果如何取得的奮鬥過程中、以及您如何能從中學習到新知等各方面，我們迫不及待要和大家分享。此外，我們也必須感謝現代人類是多麼幸運，有足夠的能力可以瞭解這個宇宙。

天文所前所長 賀曾樸