Subaru Seminars

The extreme properties of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and their unique location in the centres of clusters make them powerful probes of the hierarchical galaxy formation theory in which galaxies assemble from sub-galactic size haloes. Exactly when the assemblage took place in BCGs is currently a matter of some debate. We investigate, for the first time, the evolution of these galaxies at redshifts z>1 from a small sample of X-ray bright clusters, including XMMXCSJ2215-1738, which is the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy cluster at z=1.46. By comparing the K-band light with lower redshift samples, we find that overall the stellar mass of 5 BCGs between z~ 1.2-1.4 is not significantly different to the stellar mass of local counterparts. On average these BCGs are almost fully assembled 4-5 Gyrs after the big bang, having grown to 90% of their final stellar mass by this time. We demonstrate that these stellar mass estimates are relatively insensitive to the stellar population synthesis model used. BCGs hosted by the most massive clusters in semi-analytical models based on the Millennium Simulation indicate a protracted formation period over a Hubble time and predict that only 20% of the BCG stellar mass should be assembled at the epoch probed by our sample. Future large simulations and near infrared observations of galaxies in the cores of clusters from forthcoming high redshift surveys will enable us to determine whether this somewhat surprising evolutionary behavior can be reconciled with the hierarchical picture.

While the existence of large numbers of extrasolar planets around solar type stars has been unambiguously demonstrated by radial velocity, transit and microlensing surveys, attempts at their direct imaging with AO-equipped large telescopes remain largely unsuccessful. Indeed, current surveys are limited by modest AO performance which do not probe the central 0.2" around the star, and only reach maximum sensitivity outside 1". Even on most nearby systems, this translates into orbital distances greater than 10 AU, where massive planets are probably rare (as suggested by the results of these surveys).
A handful of candidates have yet been imaged (e.g. 2M1207 or GQ Lupi), but their planetary status remains model-dependent and controversial (Neuhauser et al, 2005; Biller et al, 2006). Moreover, neither core accretion (Mizuno, 1980) nor disk instability (Cameron 1978, Boss 1997) planet formation models alone can account for the existence of these planets, at orbital distances greater than 50 AU. To be able to directly detect extrasolar planets within 10 AU, or to explore the "Goldlilock zone" of nearby stars, one needs just one thing: mask about 90 % of the primary mirror of the telescope!
I just spent the last three years at Cornell University working to the development of a successful high-angular resolution technique called non-redundant aperture masking interferometry with AO, which manages to look for companions at separations as low as 0.02" on an 8-meter telescope. I'll explain you how it works, show you the kind of science I've been able to do with this fun technique with the Palomar 200" and the Keck II telescopes and will discuss its possible implementation onto Subaru.

The star formation history of Local Group galaxies is a powerful tool for studying their evolution, including chemical enrichment histories and stellar population gradients, which in turn may shed light on the role of reionization or Supernovae feedback in dwarf galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, isolated dwarfs are ideal laboratories since their evolution has not been complicated by the vicinity of giant galaxies. We will discuss the main results of the project Local Cosmology from Isolated Dwarfs (LCID), aimed at deriving detailed star formation histories for a sample of six Local Group isolated dwarf, low metallicity, galaxies: two dIrr (IC1613 and Leo A), two transition dIrr/dSph (LGS3 and Phoenix) and the only two isolated dSph in the Local Group (Cetus and Tucana). To accomplish this goal we have collected, using the ACS on board the HST, color-magnitude diagrams reaching their oldest main sequence turnoff (V~28) with good photometric accuracy. Accurate star formation histories have been derived through comparison with synthetic color-magnitude diagrams, using the IAC-pop algorithm. All galaxies in our sample, except Leo A, show a substantial amount of old stellar population, even though the subsequent evolution is varied. We will discuss the implications of these star formation histories on current scenarios of dwarf galaxy formation and evolution.

While more than 200 extrasolar planets have been discovered using indirect techniques, the direct detection of this class of object has remained at the sensitivity limits of ground based observatories. The development of improved adaptive optics systems and high contrast instruments has increased the sensitivity to extrasolar planets, and over the next 5 years, instruments will be capable of detecting Jupiter-mass planets around nearby stars. I will present the recent results from the high contrast observations using the Keck II AO system and OSIRIS integral field spectrograph (IFS). The OSIRIS integral field data is used to simultaneously monitor the PSF over a broad band (20% filter), and post-processing of this data product can be used to suppress the optical speckles that currently limit the sensitivity to faint companions. Finally, I will discuss the design of an IFS to observe in parallel with the Subaru SEEDS survey.

Systems of globular clusters constitute one of the oldest, distinct stellar systems observable in galaxies today. Most globular clusters formed approximately ~12 gigayear ago, hence their properties are sensitive to the conditions at this early epoch. I will discuss our efforts to determine the influence of such conditions on the present-day properties of galaxies by contrasting the GC systems in host galaxies of different masses, environments and morphologies.

The universe at z~2 is one of the most important era to investigate the galaxy evolution, with the cosmic SFR reaching its peak. Using BzK selection criteria (Daddi et al. 2004), such objects can be selected effciently, being less affected by dust extinction. We threfore carried out wide-field K-band imaging of the Subaru Deep Field (SDF), which has extremely deep (28magAB) optical image with large FOV of 900 sq. arcmin. Containing 5 deep narrow-band images, UV images of GALEX, and MIR images of IRAC/MIPS, SDF is suitable to probe the nature of the galaxies at z~2. The final K-band image has overlap with optical image of 800 sq.arcmin, and reaches the depth of 24.1mag(AB, S/N=3). We have identified ~6000 star-forming BzK galaxies (sBzKs), ~300 passive BzK (pBzKs), and ~3000 EROs in the sample. Photometric redshifts indicate that most of the BzKs are at z=1-2.5 down to K=23.5mag. Such a wide and deep sample will enable us to study the formation activities of galaxies according to their luminosity at z=2, and provide us important insight into the galaxy evolution. We will present their stellar mass function, dust extinction, clustering properties, and their correlations, and discuss their down-sizing evolution.

We have investigated the evolution of the structure of the Oort cloud by stellar encounters. Oort cloud comets are believed to be planetesimals, which are remnants of planet formation. The external forces such as the galactic tide and perturbations from passing stars and/or giant molecular clouds pulls up perihelia and randomizes inclinations of planetesimals with large aphelion distances produced by planet scattering. These processes play important roles in forming the spherical Oort cloud, which is predicted by observations of long-period comets. First, we considered the effect of the vertical component of the tidal force from the galactic disk on the structure of the Oort cloud. Due to the galactic tide, the eccentricity and inclination of some planetesimals alternately oscillate a great deal. The large change of eccentricity and inclination is effective to form the Oort Cloud. We found that due to the galactic tide, planetesimals with the semimajor axes >~1,000 AU raise the perihelion distances outside the planetary region and planetesimals with the semimajor axes >~20,000 AU obtain the inclination to the ecliptic plane from 0 to153 deg in 5 Gyr. We also found that the galactic tide alone can not realize the isotropic distribution of inclination of new comets from the Oort cloud, which is expected from the observation of long period comets.
Second, we considered the effect of the sucsessive stellar encounters on the formation of the Oort cloud. Passing stars give the velocity changes to the planetesimals and the planetesimals gain or lose their energies and/or angular momentum. These changes induce the diffusion of the planetesimal disk i.e., the perihelion distances and inclinations of the planetesimals are redistributed. We used the impulse approximation to calculate the velocity change of planetesimals.When the velocity change is large, some planetesimals escape from the Solar system to the interstellar space. We found that the spherical Oort cloud can be formed in 5 billion years by stellar encounters with the parameters derived from the observation of the solar neighborhood. However, the isotropic distributions of eccentricity and inclination are not produced. We also found that, in the Sun-like parameter ranges, the evolution rate of the planetesimal disk is scaled by the masses, velocities, and total number of the stars.

We present a discovery of large-scale structures around Cl 0939+4713 at z=0.4 based on spectroscopic redshifts. In our previous papers, we suggested that there are filaments and subclumps around the cluster core using the photometric redshfit technique. A spectroscopic follow-up observation with the Subaru/FOCAS was carried out on eight selected regions covering the most prominent structures to confirm their association to the main cluster. We confirm that 96 galaxies are cluster members, which form large-scale structures around the cluster core: eg., a large subclump to the west and filaments to the south and northwest. We also discuss stellar populations of galaxies in the structures.

A three-dimensional common-path interferometer is proposed, which can achromatically null out an on-axis source while maintaining the detectability of an off-axis source. A geometric phase in the three-dimensional interferometer introduces an achromatic pi-phase shift to the light from the on-axis source, such that destructive interference nulls out the axial light at one of the ports of the interferometer. Light from the off-axis source, which is exempt from destructive interference, comes out from both ports with equal intensity. The common-path scheme makes the system highly immune to environmental disturbances. In the described experiment, a 10E-6 peak-to-peak nulling contrast was obtained at 1-lambda/D distance. A proof for achromaticity and several perspectives to enhance general AIC nulling performances will be discussed.

The Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany (MPIA) first got involved in Adaptive Optics for Astronomy in the early 1990s with a tip/tilt secondary for the UKIRT and the ALFA system for the 3.5m telescope on Calar Alto. Ever since then, the MPIA has been involved in various AO instruments and LGS facilities for Calar Alto, the VLT, and the LBT. I will give a short overview of past, current and future instruments developed at the MPIA in the context of Adaptive Optics. Then I will focus on two particular projects, which I have been involved in over the last few years. The first project is a site characterization campaign with a SCIDAR of Mt. Graham, the site of the LBT, to determine the vertical profile of the atmospheric turbulence. The second project is to characterize a prototype of the layer-oriented MCAO system of LINC-NIRVANA in closed-loop operation. As an outlook I would like to show some areas for a future collaboration between Subaru and MPIA related to Adaptive Optics instrumentation.

Thanks to recent high spectral resolution and high sensitivity observations, it has become possible to detect molecular hydrogen line emission from protoplanetary disks. Now, it is believed that in the disks dust particles stick each other and grow in size, as well as settle towards the disk midplane. As these processes are thought to be the first step of planet formation, it is of great interest to find observational evidence of the dust evolution in the disk.
In this work we have constructed a detailed disk model, taking into account heating of gas and dust via irradiation from a central star, as well as the dust coagulation and settling in the disk. In addition, we have calculated the level populations of molecular hydrogen and the line emission from the disk. Our results show that as the dust particles evolve in the disks, the gas temperature at the disk surface drops because of inefficient grain photoelectric heating, which leads to a change in the dominant H2 excitation mechanism from thermal to UV fluorescent. Therefore, our model calculations suggest that the dust evolution in protoplanetary disks could be observable through the H2 line ratios.

We discuss the environmental dependence of galaxy colors at z<1.3 and show that galaxies follow the "environment-dependent down-sizing" evolution. We suggest that galaxy-galaxy interactions may be the primary driver of this evolution.
We are conducting a panoramic imaging and spectroscopic survey of galaxy clusters at 0.5 What physical process(es) drives the observed build-up of the red sequence? We address this question with composite spectra of red galaxies in field, group, and cluster environments at z<0.83. Red galaxies in groups at z~0.8 and in the field z~0.5 show strong Hd absorptions for their colors. Interestingly, these are the environments in which we observe the on-going build-up of the red sequence. The strong Hd absorptions imply that their star formation rates decreased on a relatively short time scale (<1Gyr). We suggest that galaxy-galaxy interactions are likely the driving process of the truncation of the star formation activities and the build-up of the red sequence.

I demonstrate a possible new formation route for fullerenes from CO gas by the Boudouard reaction in the circumstellar envelopes in post-asymptotic giant blanch (AGB) stars. The production of fullerenes will provide a unified explanation for the formation of TiC-core, graphitic-mantle spherules, which are extracted from primitive meteorites, and an origin of the 21-microns feature observed in post-AGB stars. Most of the carbon in the outflows of carbon-rich AGB stars is in the form of CO and C2H2. Carbonaceous materials such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and fullerenes are believed to form from C2H2 and its derivatives because CO is a very stable molecule. Therefore, no one ever considered CO gas as a carbon source. Here, I will demonstrate experimentally that large cage structure carbon particles can be produced from CO gas by the Boudouard reaction. Carbon particles were produced by resistive heating of a carbon rod in CO gas in the laboratory and were analyzed using high-resolution transmission electron microscope and infrared spectrometer. As a result, we found the first evidence of the presence of fullerenes around carbon-rich AGB stars. In the seminar, I will show a new formation process of core-mantle grains and an origin of 21-microns feature observed in carbon-rich post-AGB stars based on laboratory experiments.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been considered most plausible candidates of the unidentified infrared bands observed from various astronomical objects in Galaxy and in extragalactic regions. Since it was believed that PAHs exist ubiquitously in the universe, the study of the life cycle of the PAHs leads to understand physical environments and chemical reaction process in various objects.
In order to elucidate the life cycle of the PAHs, I have performed experimental study on the formation of PAH clusters and measured their infrared spectra in the laboratory. Nanometer-sized PAH clusters were produced by evaporation of commercial powder in inert gas atmospheres. If the mechanisms of formation and growth of PAH clusters in this experiment were elucidated, it will be able to discuss the formation of PAH clusters in a gas out flow from evolved star. During the formation and growth of PAH clusters, PAH clusters may be undergone UV irradiation and plasma environments. Therefore, two other different experiments were performed: PAH clusters were produce in a plasma field and laboratory synthesized PAH clusters were exposed to UV radiation.

We observe the double star system HD19994 with the adaptive optics (AO) system NACO at the 8m UT4/VLT to determine the astrometric signal of the radial velocity planet candidate HD19994Ab as a periodic change in the binary separation of HD19994A and B. By using AO assisted observations in a narrow band filter, centred in the near infrared K band, we compensate for atmospheric turbulences and suppress differential chromatic refraction. We expect a minimal astrometric signal for HD19994Ab (M*sini = 1.68 Mj) of 131 micro-arcsec for an elliptical orbit (e=0.3) and at least a signal of 1 milli-arcsec for a 13 Mj object. To police the stability of the plate scale we use the globular cluster 47 Tuc as a nearly intrinsically stable reference system. Using a Monte Carlo Simulation with a uniformly distributed velocity dispersion of 631 mas/year (McLaughlin et al., 2006) we derived a relative intrinsic stability of 0.02% per pixel and year. Thus, with 47Tuc we can detect variations in the NACO plate scale down to 0.3 micro-arcsec per pixel and year. Hence we reach a final precision in the separation of our science binary of ~100 micro-arcsec over a period of one year, sufficient to check whether the companion is below 13 Mj.

There are over 200 extrasolar planets that have been discovered so far. The discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets have revealed diversity of planetary systems. For example, most of extrasolar planets are known to have totally different circumstances from our Solar System; a significant proportion of those planets lie at semi-major axes of less than about 0.1 AU ("hot Jupiters") and/or have appreciable eccentricities of 0.2 - 0.9 ("eccentric planets").
It is commonly believed that hot Jupiters originally formed at larger orbital distances and migrated inward during the planet formation epoch. The proposed migration mechanisms involve gravitational interactions with the protoplanetary disk (disk-planet interaction) and other giant planets (planet-planet interaction). However, the relative importance of the migration mechanisms is still unclear. On the other hand, the alignment of the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis (spin-orbit alignment) is known to be an useful diagnostic for discriminating planet formation mechanisms. One can measure the spin-orbit alignment by exploiting the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in transiting exoplanetary systems.
We recently succeeded in detecting the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in the transiting exoplanetary system TrES-1 using Subaru/HDS. It is the third case for which the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect has been detected in a transiting exoplanetary system, and the first demonstration that such measurements are possible for relatively faint (V~12) host stars. I will review the backgrounds and our recent results/future prospects of Subaru observations.

Reference: Narita et al. 2007, PASJ in press, astro-ph/0702707

We present a new theoretical model for the luminosity functions (LFs) of Lyman alpha (Lya) emitting galaxies in the framework of hierarchical galaxy formation. We extend a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation which reproduces a number of observations for local galaxies, without changing the original model parameters but introducing just a few new physically-motivated parameters to describe the escape fraction of Lya photons from host galaxies (fesc). Though a previous study using a semi-analytic model simply assumed a constant and universal value of fesc, we introduce two new effects on fesc: extinction by interstellar dust and effect of galactic-scale outflow induced as a feedback of star formation. It is found that the new model nicely reproduces all the observational Lya LFs of the Lya emitters (LAEs) at different redshifts. Our model predicts that galaxies with strong outflows are dominant in the observed LFs with fesc ~ 1, which is consistent with available observational estimates of outflow and fesc, and in contrast to the universal fesc model that requires fesc << 1. We then apply our model to estimate the ionization fraction of the universe at z > 6, and find that the IGM transmission to the Lya emission is less than unity at z ~ 6, consistent with the recent constraints by other methods.

Dwarf galaxies account for a large share of cluster galaxies and should be closely related to the formation and evolution of clusters. Despite the obvious importance, however, the number of very faint (douwn to M~-10) cluster samples available to date is limited and properties of such faint galaxies remain unclear. In order to reveal properties of faint cluster dwarfs, we derive very faint-end slopes of the galaxy luminosity functions (LFs) in the Hydra I cluster at z=0.0126, for which such a very faint galaxy population, at M~-10, has not been previonsly surveyed. We find that the LF of the entire population has a slightly steeper slope (alpha~-1.6) in the range of -20 < M < -10 than those reported for other clusters in slightly brighter ranges. The LF shows a significant upturn at M~-16 as is seen in several other nearby clusters, but not in the field. We also find that red galaxies dominate over blue galaxies in the Hydra I down to M=-10. The upturn in the faint-end slope of the LF is likely due to the generation of the faint red galaxies, which presumably related to cluster environments. Strong tidal interactions (such as harassment) should occure frequently in clusters, and many galaxies are probably transformed into red galaxies, which possibly form the observed upturn. In this talk, I will present our results of LFs in the two different regions of the Hydra I in B- and Rc-bands using the Subaru Suprime-Cam photometry.

The detection and observational investigation of the first population of stars (Population III stars; hereafter PopIII), formed from the primordial un-enriched gas, will be the one of the main goals of observational astronomy in the next decade. The discovery of PopIII objects will open a new window to study the early forming phase of galaxies, the environment and mechanism responsible for the production of the first metals, and their implications for the reionization of the universe.
Galaxies hosting a significant fraction of massive PopIII objects are expected to show huge equivalent widths of Ly_alpha and moderately strong HeII emission, due to the very hard SED of their ionizing photons. To search for such interesting objects, we developed a new selection method to pick up objects with a large Ly_alpha equivalent width effectively at 6.0 < z < 6.5, and applied this method to the wide and deep imaging data of the Subaru Deep Field project. We identified 7 photometric candidates as galaxies having such a large Ly_alpha equivalent width at z>6, and spectroscopically confirmed at least 5 objects among the seven candidates. We tried to detect HeII emission from one of those objects through ultra-deep near-IR spectroscopy, which resulted in obtaining upper limit on SFR(PopIII).
In this seminar, I report our recent studies described above, and will briefly mention on our on-going trials to discover massive PopIII stars in high-z universe.

We present a unified picture of the lifecycles of star clusters, beginning with their formation in dense molecular clouds in the interstellar medium and ending with their dissolution in the the general field-star population. This picture was developed through a combination of detailed observations of clusters systems, particularly those in the Solar neighborhood and in the interacting Antennae galaxies, along with several theoretical studies, in collaboration with Rupali Chandar, Brad Whitmore, and Qing Zhang. This picture turns out to be remarkably simple, although undoubtedly approximate. By a few simple formulae, it accounts for most, if not all, the main statistical properties of star cluster systems (formation rates, mass functions, age distributions, etc). These formulae embody and clarify the physical processes involved in the formation and evolution of cluster systems, although there are still a few unresolved theoretical issues.
If there is interest by the audience, we can also present briefly some results on the possible detection of reionization sources in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field.

The "All Wavelength Extended Groth Strip Survey" (AEGIS) survey has recently provided a first comprehensive picture of star formation in field galaxies out to z>1.
(1) Our data showed that star formation histories are a strong function of galaxy mass.
(2) Star formation evolved predominantly gradually declining, not through an evoloving role of starbursts.
(3) The observed mass dependencies of star formation histories imply not only a slower decline, but also a systematically later onset, of star formation in less massive galaxies. These mass dependencies jointly generate the observed "downsizing" phenomena.
I present a quantitative model that parametrizes the evolution of star formation as a function of mass and redshift. This picture of "normal" star formation provides a testbed for current theoretical concepts of star formation and baryon physics and, for the first time, a baseline against which we can measure the effect of additional processes, quenching or mergers, as a function of mass and z. For more information on this work, please see:
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0701924
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703056

We apply the BzK color selection technique proposed by Daddi et al. (2004) to deep multiwavelength data in the Subaru Deep Field, and obtain a sample of 1092 faint star-forming BzK galaxies (sBzKs) for 180 arcmin^2. This sample represents star-forming galaxies at 1.4 < z < 2.5 down to K(AB)=23.2, which roughly corresponds to a stellar-mass limit of ~1 x 10^{10} Msun. We measure the angular correlation function of these sBzKs to be w(theta) = (0.58 +- 0.13) x theta["]^{-0.8} and translate the amplitude into the correlation length assuming a reasonable redshift distribution. The resulting value, r_0 = 3.2^{+0.6}_{-0.7} h^{-1} Mpc, suggests that our sBzKs reside in haloes with a typical mass of 2.8 x 10^{11} Msun. Combining this halo mass estimate with those for brighter samples of Kong et al. (2006), we find that the mass of dark haloes largely increases with K brightness, a measure of the stellar mass. Comparison with other galaxy populations suggests that faint sBzKs (K(AB)<23.2) and Lyman Break Galaxies at z ~ 2 are similar populations hosted by relatively low-mass haloes. Using the extended Press-Schechter formalism, we predict that present-day descendants of haloes hosting sBzKs span a wide mass range depending on K brightness, from lower than that of the Milky Way up to those of richest clusters.

Do you know "Tenpla"? -- It's not a Japanese crispy fry, but is a project name for popularizing astronomy in Japan. "Ten" means "celestial" or "astronomy", and "pla" means "planetarium". The Tenpla group was established by students of astronomy in 2003, and now consists of students, researchers, educators, curators, designers, and ordinal citizens. We are suggesting a variety of ideas for many people, from kids to seniors, to enjoy and touch astronomy.
We targeted people who came to planetariums, science museums, and observatories for our first activities. We held star gazing parties and lectures at the facilities. During our outreach activities we recognized that those people were born to be familiar with science and astronomy. On the other hand, we also know that there are many people who do NOT show specific interests in science.
Then, we started to target the people who don't visit science facilities. Astronomical Toilet Paper (ATP) is one of the methods to communicate with such kind of people. We also made an online typing game named "Sora uchi", that means (meaning is "Shoot the universe!", as well as science cafes and other unique, original events.
Recently, we started to talk to people with some "barriers" to touch astronomy. We visit hospitals and make presentations and activities for children, or just talk to children in beds who can not go outside. Parents with infants and toddlers are also the ones who are difficult to make their times for science. We hold a series of astronomical lectures just for parents (and their children) at a local community center.
Through our activities, we have found we must communicate and cooperate with local peoples if we do want to popularize astronomy. The involvement of the local people is essential to touch the whole community. Their enthusiasms and interests make us much easier and more comfortable to carry out the activities. We tried to find out the best way to cooperate with them.
In our talk, we will share our experiences through our various outreach activities, and will present our future plans. Please refer the following web page:
Tenpla
ATP :The Astronomical Toilet Paper

X-rays from AGN come from the inner accretion disk. In their spectra, the iron K-lines (rest frame energy of 6.4 keV) with a broad low-energy tail are believed to manifest the strong relativistic effects that are unique to the nearest surrounding of the central black holes. Following the discovery with ASCA, such broad iron lines have been found/confirmed from many AGN with Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku. More complex spectral and variability features have been discovered, and interpretations are developed. I shall give a status report of the recent studies and future prospects of the subject.

The AKARI mission is the first Japanese satellite dedicated for large area surveys in the infrared, and was launched successfully on February 22nd 2006 (JST). AKARI will perform the most advanced all-sky survey in 6 mid- to far-infrared wavebands since the preceding IRAS mission over 2 decades ago, and also deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys near the ecliptic poles ( over $B%sim$15~deg$^2$ in total) with pointed observations in 13 wavelength bands at 2-160~$B%mu$m. AKARI is a perfect complement to Spitzer in respect of its wide sky area and wavelength coverage. In this talk, I will briefly describe the current status of observations as well as the early initial results from the North Ecliptic Pole survey with the infrared camera onboard AKARI.