(born 1952) is a Japanese

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

at Gekko Observatory and prolific discoverer of 61

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

s as credited by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

, and include the binary asteroid 4383 Suruga, the

potentially hazardous object A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They ar ...

(7753) 1988 XB and the Jupiter trojan 4715 Medesicaste.

International asteroid monitoring project

Japan Spaceguard Association The is a not-for-profit organization based in Tokyo, Japan. Its formal status under the Japanese law is . Missions The aims of the Japan Spaceguard Association (JSGA) echoes that of The Spaceguard Foundation and other spaceguard movements: to p ...

(JSGA) is keen to have astronomical education for young people and held ''Spaceguard

Private Investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

of the Stars— the fugitives are asteroids!'' program in 2001. Yoshiaki Oshima participated as one of the committee member. JSGA submitted a paper on that project in a proceedings, with Oshima as a contributor. JSGA held an astronomical education program as part of their International Asteroid Monitoring Project, that collaborated with the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

and its International Schools' Observatory (ISO) program which had involved 12 teams of junior high to senior high school classes from Asian and European countries. The Private Investigator of Stars was co-sponsored by the British Council which advised the International Asteroid Monitoring Project by coordinating observatory in the Canary islands and participating laboratories for ISO.

Yomiuri Shinbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; th ...

newspaper held an asteroid hunting contest for the JSGA and run articles on their pages. 438 school classes and other teams signed up with 1,317 indibivisuals, and 133 teams reported the results of their observation. JSGA based its project headquarters in its observatory called

Bisei Spaceguard Center The Bisei Spaceguard Center (BSGC) is an astronomical observatory located at Bisei-chō, Okayama, Japan. The facility was constructed during 1999–2000, where it since conducts the Bisei Asteroid Tracking Telescope for Rapid Survey or , an as ...

, owned by the Japan Space Forum. An optical telescope on the Canary island has been operated by the staff of

Astrophysics Research Institute The Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI) is an astronomy and astrophysics research institute in Merseyside, UK. Formed in 1992, it stood on the Twelve Quays site in Birkenhead from 1998 until June 2013 when it relocated to the Liverpool Scie ...

at John Moore University in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and images were transmitted to each classroom via internet connection.

Honors

The outer main-belt asteroid 5592 Oshima is named after him. The naming citation also mentions his contribution to the development of the instrumentation at the

Nihondaira Observatory Nihondaira Observatory (also known as Oohira Station, Obs. code: 385) is an astronomical observatory that is located on a hill overlooking Shimizu, Japan. It has been the source for numerous discoveries of minor planet by astronomer ...

List of discovered minor planets

In 1988, Oshima discovered (7753) 1988 XB, a

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

and

potentially hazardous asteroid A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They are ...

that approaches the orbit of Earth as close as 2.5 lunar distances. He also discovered 4715 Medesicaste, a 64-kilometer sized

Jupiter trojan The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each trojan librates around one of Jupiter's stable Lagrange poin ...

in 1989. By the end of the same year, he discovered 4383 Suruga a

binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that t ...

with a

minor-planet moon A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. , there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are important ...

. All discoveries he made at the Gekko Observatory ''(see table below)''.

Works

* Isobe, S., Atsuo, A., Asher, D., Fuse, T., Hashimoto, N., Nakano, S., K. Nishiyama, Yoshiaki Oshima, Noritsugu Takahashi, J. Terazono, H. Umehara, Takeshi Urata, Makoto Yoshikawa. "Educational program of Japan Spaceguard Association using asteroid search", Spaceguard Detective Agency, ''Proceedings of Asteroids, Comets, Meteors – ACM '' 2002. International Conference, 29 July – 2 August 2002

Notes

References