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DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND
INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS
PRESS RELEASE
His talk will also cover the search for life on other planets
Saku Tsuneta will explain how solar
activity influences Earth’s climate at a
lecture in the BBVA Foundation
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Tsuneta is Vice President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA). In his talk, he will analyze whether solar activity affects Earth’s
climate, and present data suggesting that our Sun might be headed for
a prolonged period of weak activity
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He will also discuss the current cycle of solar activity, focusing on the
need to improve the forecasting accuracy of space meteorology so we
can prepare ourselves for solar storms

The lecture series Science of the Cosmos. Science in the Cosmos in the
BBVA Foundation has welcomed world authorities in the most active
areas of astrophysics, from the study of the origins of the Universe to the
search for life on other planets by way of ultra-exotic, high-energy
phenomena such as black holes or gamma ray bursts. Videos of the
lectures can be viewed in full on www.fbbva.es
Madrid, September 1, 2016.- Saku Tsuneta, Vice President of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), believes it is not yet feasible to travel to
planets orbiting other stars, not even to the newly discovered planet circling our
nearest star, Proxima Centauri, just 4.2 light years away. Conversely he is upbeat
on our chances of achieving slightly less ambitious goals, like setting up mining
operations on the moon and asteroids or “terraforming” Mars. “The 21st century
should be the time when mankind gets its first comprehensive picture of the
origins of the Universe and life,” he affirms.
Tsuneta, who is also Director General at JAXA’s Institute of Space and
Astronautical Science (ISAS), will visit Madrid on September 5 as the latest
speaker in the BBVA Foundation’s astrophysics and cosmology lecture series
Science of the Cosmos. Science in the Cosmos. As well as explaining how solar
activity influences the Earth’s climate, he will offer data indicating that the Sun
may be headed for a prolonged period of weak activity. On the subject of
solar storms, he will discuss the threat they pose for civilization, while stressing the
need to improve the forecasting accuracy of space meteorology.
Solar flares and other phenomena related to the Sun’s magnetic field can
cause major damage to satellites, expose orbiting astronauts to harmful
radiation and even trigger large-scale power cuts on Earth. Space agencies
provide a “space meteorology” service that helps satellite operators and their
own teams to prepare for solar storms, drawing on observations from space
telescopes monitoring the central star.
Tsuneta will focus especially on the results of one such mission, Hinode (“sunrise”
in Japanese), launched by JAXA with the collaboration of the European Space
Agency (ESA) and other organizations, which has obtained some of the most
precise images ever of the magnetic processes unfolding on the Sun’s surface.
Among Hinode’s goals is to improve prediction quality with regard to solar
storms.
As Tsuneta remarks, “the Sun is an essential and fascinating source of energy,
partly driven by intense magnetic fields whose origin is not well understood.
Nevertheless, being able to predict solar activity is of great importance for our
technological society.”
An anomalous solar cycle
The lecture will feature spectacular videos of the Sun’s surface taken from
Hinode. The observation satellite has made discoveries that elucidate how and
why solar activity fluctuates periodically, registering a minimum every eleven
years or so.
The Sun is currently into Solar Cycle 24 – a numbering that starts from the mid18th century when solar activity was first measured. And its progress is proving
far from typical. The solar minimum began officially in 2008 but continued for
two more years, while the maximum was double, with twin peaks in 2011 and
2013. We are now approaching the next low point. Tsuneta will discuss how the
irregular course of Cycle 24, and the upcoming minimum, may affect Earth’s
climate, judging from earlier events in the planet’s history.
He will also talk about one of the Hinode mission’s most striking findings in
connection with the reversal of the Sun’s magnetic field that occurs in each
cycle. The Japanese satellite, he relates, discovered that the Sun, for a time,
has as many as four magnetic poles, because “the poles do not flip
simultaneously, as was once thought. Instead the North pole changes first,
giving rise to a quadrupole structure.”
Unreachable extrasolar planets
As Director General of Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science,
Tsuneta has a comprehensive vision of the achievements and challenges of
space exploration. Regarding the latest astrophysical discoveries he remarks
that “60% of the stars in the Universe harbor planets,” and that over sixty such
bodies are located in the “habitable” zone – the range of distance from the
central star where temperatures are compatible with the existence of liquid
water, a prerequisite for the emergence and survival of life as we know it.
As Tsuneta explains, “astronomers anticipate that in a few tens of years from
now, the most advanced space telescopes will detect biomarkers indicating
the presence on these planets of water, ozone, carbon dioxide, methane and
other essential materials for life. This discovery, when it comes, could have a
fundamental and permanent impact on humanity: Where do we come from?
What are we? People on this globe might even seriously consider a situation like
that described in Carl Sagan’s novel Contact.”
Other predictions for 50 years on conjure the possibility of colonizing Mars,
exploiting mineral resources on other planets… “Whether or not we end up
mining asteroids or the moon will depend on necessities other than science,” he
remarks. And “terraforming Mars may become an important topic as we learn
more about the planet. Travelling to Mars is already under discussion at space
agencies, but anything beyond Mars is not practical. As to travelling to planets
around other stars… I do not see that as feasible.”
Closer collaboration between Japan and Europe in space exploration
The lecture, titled The Sun and Life on other Planets, will be introduced by the
Director of Science at the European Space Agency (ESA), Álvaro Giménez
Cañete, who also heads the ESAC center in Villaneuva de la Cañada, Madrid,
headquarters for all of ESA’s scientific missions.
The European and Japanese space agencies are already working together on
numerous initiatives, like Hayabusa 2, Japan’s asteroid sample return mission;
Europe’s BepiColombo mission to the planet Mercury or the Japanese-led X-ray
astronomy mission, ASTRO-H2. Tsuneta, a declared admirer of recent European
missions like Rosetta – which successfully landed a probe on a comet one year
ago – is convinced that “collaboration between ESA and JAXA will and should
grow. If both agencies contribute competent people, advanced technology
and money for joint projects, we can create better missions that would
otherwise be impossible.”
Bio notes
Saku Tsuneta obtained his PhD in astronomy from the University of Tokyo (1983).
Since April 2014, he has been Director General at the Institute of Space and
Astronautical Science (ISAS) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA), where he also serves as Vice President. Before joining ISAS, he was a
professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). His
research interest is anything related to magnetic fields in the cosmos. He is
particularly interested in the Sun, where intense magnetic fields are generated
along with various dynamic phenomena involving magnetic energy that affect
Earth. In the past 35 years, he has developed innovative space instruments for
solar physics aboard satellites, sounding rockets, and balloons.
Science of the Cosmos. Science in the Cosmos, forthcoming talks
The next speakers in the series will be Mark McCaughrean (European Space
Agency, ESA), who will talk about the exploration of the solar system; Reinhard
Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany), who has
spent two decades observing the black hole at the heart of our galaxy; and
Werner Hofmann (Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Germany), who will
talk about the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), part of it sited in the
Canary Islands.
For more information, contact the BBVA Foundation Department of Communication and
Institutional Relations (+34 91 374 5210 / [email protected]) or visit www.fbbva.es