• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.135-142
• /
• 2011

A $200'{\times}200'$ region around 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is observed and analyzed in the near-infrared. We obtain polarimetry data in the J, H, and Ks bands using the SIRIUS polarimeter SIRPOL at the Infrared Survey Facility 1.4 m telescope. We measure the Stokes parameters of 2562 point-like sources to derive the degree of polarization and the polarization position angles. We discuss the statistics of the groups classified by color-magnitude diagram and proper motions of the sources, in order to separate the Galactic foreground sources from those present in the LMC. We notice that groups classified by the proper motion data show a tendency towards different polarimetric properties.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.321-324
• /
• 2012

Using extensive mid-IR datasets from AKARI, i.e. 9-band photometry covering the wavelength range from $2{\mu}m$ to $24{\mu}m$ and the unbiased spectroscopic survey for sources with $S_{\nu}$($9{\mu}m$)>0.3 mJy, we study starburst galaxies specifically at the redshift of z ~ 0.5, whose mid-IR spectra are clearly dominated by the PAH emission features. PAH-selected galaxies, selected with extremely red mid-IR colour due to PAHs, have high rest-frame PAH-to-stellar luminosity ratios, comparable to those in the most active regions in nearby starburst galaxies. Thus, they seem to have active starburst regions spreading over the whole body. Furthermore, some of PAH-selected galaxies are found to have peculiar rest-frame 11-to-$8{\mu}m$ flux ratios, which is systematically smaller than nearby starburst/AGN spectral templates. This may indicate a systematic difference in the physical condition of ISM between nearby and distant starburst galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.175-177
• /
• 2017

In order to reveal physical conditions of molecular gas in active galaxies (active galaxies mean both starbursts and AGNs in this paper), we carried out systematic observations (R = 19 ~ 120) of CO fundamental band at $4.7{\mu}m$ in absorption with AKARI. We also made follow-up CO absorption observations at higher spectral resolution (R = 5000 ~ 1000) with Subaru. Recently, Herschel made extensive observations of highly-excited CO lines in emission in the far-infrared. The two data sets (absorption and emission) sometimes provide us with apparently inconsistent results. One case is starburst galaxies: Subaru observations showed low temperature of molecular gas toward the starburst NGC 253, while Herschel detected highly excited CO lines in the starburst. This suggests that warm molecular clouds are more deeply embedded than newly formed star clusters. The other case is obscured AGNs; Herschel detected highly excited CO lines in emission in nearby AGNs, while AKARI and Subaru observations showed CO absorption only in some of the obscured AGNs. This could reflect the difference of nature of molecular tori in these AGNs. We propose the combination of the absorption and emission observations as an effective tool to reveal geometry of warm molecular clouds in active galaxies.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2006

We carried out CO survey toward IR-excess clouds using SRAO 6-m telescope in search of molecular $H_2$. These clouds, which show far-infrared excess over what is expected from HI column density, are considered to be candidates of molecular clouds. In order to find new high Galactic latitude clouds, we made mapping observations for 14 IR-excess clouds selected from Reach et al.(1998) in $^{12}CO$ J = 1 - 0 line, supplementing the similar survey in southern hemisphere (Onishi et al. 2001). $^{12}CO$ emission is detected from three IR-excess clouds among 14 objects. Three newly detected clouds exhibit somewhat clumpy morphology and column densities amount to ${\sim}10^{21}\;cm^{-2}$. One of three clouds, DIR120-28, show discrepancy between IR-excess center and CO emission center. It seems that IR-excess may not be an effective tracer of molecular gas. Instead, optical depth$(\tau)$ excess, i.e., IR-excess corrected for temperature dependence, may be more effective tracer of molecular clouds, since, by combining statistics from both hemispheres, we found that the detection rate is higher for IR-excess clouds with lower dust temperature.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.47 no.6
• /
• pp.259-277
• /
• 2014

G192.8-1.1 has been known as one of the faintest supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Galax until the radio continuum of G192.8-1.1 is proved to be thermal by Gao et al. (2011). Yet, the nature of G192.8-1.1 has not been fully investigated. Here, we report the possible discovery of faint non-thermal radio continuum components with a spectral index ${\alpha}{\sim}0.56(S_{\nu}{\propto}{\nu}^{-{\alpha}})$ around G192.8-1.1, while of the radio continuum emission is thermal. Also, our Arecibo $H_I$ data reveal an $H_I$ shell, expanding with an expansion velocity of $20-60km\;s^{-1}$, that has an excellent morphological correlation with the radio continuum emission. The estimated physical parameters of the $H_I$ shell and the possible association of non-thermal radio continuum emission with it suggest G192.8-1.1 to be an~0.3 Myr-old SNR. However, the presence of thermal radio continuum implies the presence of early-type stars in the same region. One possibility is that a massive star is ionizing the interior of an old SNR. If it is the case, the electron distribution assumed by the centrally-peaked surface brightness of thermal emission implies that G192.8-1.1 is a "thermal-composite" SNR, rather than a typical shell-type SNR, where the central hot gas that used to be bright in X-rays has cooled down. Therefore, we propose that G192.8-1.1 is an old evolved thermal-composite SNR showing recurring emission in the radio continuum due to a nearby massive star. The infrared image supports that the $H_I$ shell of G192.8-1.1 is currently encountering a nearby star forming region that possibly contains an early type star(s).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.42.2-42.2
• /
• 2017

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a unique target to study the detail structures of molecular clouds and star-forming regions, due to its proximity and face-on orientation from us. Most part of the astrophysical subjects for the LMC have been investigated, but the magnetic field is still veiling despite its role in the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) and in the main force to influence the star formation process. Measuring polarization of the background stars behind interstellar medium allows us to describe the existence of magnetic fields through the polarization vector map. In this presentation, I introduce the near-infrared polarimetric results for the $39^{\prime}{\times}69^{\prime}$ field of the northeastern region of the LMC and the N159/N160 star-forming complex therein. The polarimetric observations were conducted at IRSF/SIRPOL 1.4 m telescope. These results allow us to examine both the global geometry of the large-scale magnetic field in the northeastern region and the close structure of the magnetic field in the complex. Prominent patterns of polarization vectors mainly follow dust emission features in the mid-infrared bands, which imply that the large-scale magnetic fields are highly involved in the structure of the dust cloud in the LMC. In addition, local magnetic field structures in the N159/N160 star-forming complex are investigated with the comparison between polarization vectors and molecular cloud emissions, suggesting that the magnetic fields are resulted from the sequential formation history of this complex. I propose that ionizing radiation from massive stellar clusters and the expanding bubble of the ionized gas and dust in this complex probably affect the nascent magnetic field structure.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.73-80
• /
• 2006

We analyze the extinction law towards several B1V stars-members of our Galaxy, searching for possible discrepancies from the galactic average extinction curve. Our photometric data allow to build extinction curves in a very broad range: from extreme UV till infrared. Two-colour diagrams, based on the collected photometric data from the ANS UV satellite, published UBV measurements and on the infrared 2MASS data of the selected stars, are constructed. Slopes of the fitted straight lines are used to build the average extinction curve and to search for discrepant objects. The selected stars have also been observed spectroscopically from the Terskol and ESO Observatories; these spectra allow to check their Sp/L's. The spectra of only about 30% of the initially selected objects resemble closely that of HD144470, considered as the standard of B1 V type. Other spectra either show some emission features or belong clearly to another spectral types. They are not used to build the extinction curve. Two-colour diagrams, constructed for the selected B1 V stars, showing no emission stellar features, prove that the interstellar extinction law is homogeneous in the Galaxy. Both the shape of the curve and the total-to-selective extinction ratio do not differ from the galactic average and the canonical value(3.1) respectively. The circumstellar emissions usually cause some discrepancies from the average interstellar extinction law; the discrepancies observed in the extraterrestrial ultraviolet, usually follow some misclassifications.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.201-207
• /
• 2012

Following the first Public Release of the AKARI Point Source catalogues, we have worked on the production of a new far-infrared All-Sky Diffuse mapping product. In this paper we report first results from the All Sky diffuse maps that will shortly be released to the community, based on analysis of data from the Far Infrared Surveyor ($65{\mu}m-160{\mu}m$) instrument. These data are likely to have a strong impact on studies of extended structures, and the diffuse ISM.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.141-145
• /
• 2017

We study $CO_2/H_2O$ ice abundance ratios in nearby galaxies using AKARI near-infrared slit spectroscopy. Past studies of the ices intensively examined $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios mainly in our Galaxy, and found that there were considerable variations in the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios from object to object. The cause of the variations is, however, still under debate. As a result of the analysis of our sample that includes 1031 regions in 158 galaxies, the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios are in a range of 0.05-0.30. In the dataset, we find that the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios positively correlate with the $Br{\alpha}/PAH$ $3.3{\mu}m$ ratios which reflect the massive star formation activity. Furthermore, we find that the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios positively correlate with the specific star formation rates of the galaxies where the ices are detected, that reflect the evolutionary stage of a galaxy. These results suggest that the $CO_2/H_2O$ ratios are enhanced in active star-forming regions and young galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.109-111
• /
• 2017

We detected bright mid- to far-infrared emission from the helium nova V445 Puppis in the AKARI all-sky survey data taken in 2006. Assuming an optically thin condition, we decomposed the spectral energy distribution (SED) of V445 Puppis in October 2006 by model fitting and found that the SED can be explained by a combination of cold amorphous carbon (125 K and the mass of $4.5^{+6.6}_{-2.7}{\times}10^{-4}M_{\odot}$) and warm amorphous carbon (250 K and the mass of $1.8^{+1.0}_{-0.5}{\times}10^{-5}M_{\odot}$). Assuming that the former is pre-existing dust formed in the past nova outbursts and the latter is newly formed dust in December 2000's nova wind, this result suggests that the amount of dust formed around V445 Puppis in a single outburst is larger than $10^{-5}M_{\odot}$, which is larger than those in any other classical novae ever reported.