• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.51.3-52
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• 2018

Since Voyager 1 passed the Heliopause in 2012, it has provided the observations of the charged particles in the local interstellar medium. However, Voyager 1 only provides the information along with its trajectory. In order to understand the global view of the interstellar plasma flow surrounding the Heliopause, we need another tool. When the interstellar plasmas approach the Heliopause, the ions are deflected around the Heliopause due to the draping of the interstellar magnetic field. The draping of the interstellar magnetic field is strongly connected with the shape of the Heliopause. A fraction of the diverted ions exchanges their charges with the undisturbed primary interstellar neutral atoms, and then the ions become neutral atoms called the secondary interstellar neutral atoms. The newly created neutral atoms carry information on the diverted flow of the interstellar ions, and a fraction of them can travel to the Sun. Therefore, the secondary component of the interstellar neutrals is an excellent diagnostic tool to provide important information to constrain the shape of the Heliopause. The secondary interstellar neutrals are observed by Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) at Earth's orbit. Since 2009, two energetic neutral atom cameras on IBEX have measured neutral atoms and it has provided sky maps of neutral atoms. In this presentation, we will discuss the directional distribution of the secondary interstellar neutrals at Earth's orbit. In the sky maps, the primary interstellar neutral gas is seen between $200^{\circ}$ and $260^{\circ}$ in ecliptic longitude and the secondary components are seen in the longitude range of $160^{\circ}-200^{\circ}$. We also present a simplified model of the outer heliosheath to help interpret the observations of interstellar neutrals by the IBEX-Lo instruments. We extract information on the large-scale shape of the Heliopause by comparing the neutral flux measured at IBEX along four different look directions with simple models of deflected plasma flow around hypothetical obstacles of different aspect ratios to the flow. Our comparisons between the model results and the observations indicate that the Heliopause is very blunt in the vicinity of the Heliospheric nose, especially compared to a Rankine half-body or cometary shape.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.25-36
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• 2023

Since interstellar objects like 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov originate from exoplanetary systems, even if we do not visit the exoplanetary systems, flyby, rendezvous, and sample return missions of interstellar objects can provide clues to solve the mysteries of cosmic life phenomena such as the origin of exoplanetary systems, galactic evolution, biosignatures (or even technosignatures), and panspermia. In this paper, we review space missions for interstellar object exploration in the stage of mission design or concept study such as Project Lyra, Bridge, Comet Interceptors, and Lightcraft^TM. We also review space missions, OSIRIS-REx and NEA Scout, designed for Near Earth Asteroids(NEA) explorations, to investigate the current state of basic technologies that can be extended to explore interstellar objects in a velocity of ~ 6AU/year. One of the technologies that needs to be developed for interstellar object exploration is a spacecraft propulsion method such as solar sail, which can catch up with the fast speed of interstellar objects. If this kind of propulsion becomes practical for space explorations, interstellar object explorations will mark a new era and serve as a driving force to provide evidences of cosmic life.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2023

We present a novel method that can enhance the detection success rate of interstellar objects. Interstellar objects are objects that are not gravitationally bound to our solar system and thus are believed to have originated from other planetary systems. Since the finding of two interstellar objects, 1l/'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2l/Borisov in 2019, much attention has been paid to finding new interstellar objects. In this paper, we propose the use of Heliospheric Imagers (HIs) for the survey of interstellar objects. In particular, we show HI data taken from Solar TErrestrial RElation Observatory/Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation and demonstrate their ability to detect 'Oumuamua-like interstellar objects. HIs are designed to monitor and study space weather by observing the solar wind traveling through interplanetary space. HIs provide the day-side observations and thus it can dramatically enlarge the observable sky range when combined with the traditional night-side observations. In this paper, we first review previous methods for detecting interstellar objects and demonstrate that HIs can be used for the survey of interstellar objects.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.155-158
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• 2015

The traditional view of dust in the interstellar medium is that it is made of graphite and silicates. In this paper, we discuss the evidence for complex organics being a major component of interstellar dust. Comparison between astronomical infrared spectra and laboratory spectra of amorphous carbonaceous materials suggests that organics of mixed aromatic-aliphatic structures are widely present in circumstellar, interstellar, and galactic environments. Scenarios for the synthesis of these compounds in the late stages of stellar evolution are presented.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 1979

Temperature history of very small interstellar dust particles is followed under diffuse interstellar radiation. Because of extremely small thermal capacities of these grains with sizes ranging from a few tens to hundred Angstroms in radii, they are to experience strong fluctuations in temperature whenever they are hit by interstellar ultraviolet photons. Fluctuating temperature can inhibit these smaller component of interstellar dust from growing into core-mantle particles of submicron sizes by continuously evaporating atoms and molecules adsorbed on their surface. This is interpreted as a possible physical reason for the bimodal nature in grain size distribution. A brief discussion is also given to the far infrared emission properties of such small grains in diffuse interstellar dust clouds.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.48.2-48.2
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• 2019

Light from universe is absorbed, scattered, and re-released by interstellar dust before it reaches us. Therefore, accurate correction of the observed light requires not only spatial distribution of interstellar dust, but also information on absorption and scattering for each wavelength. Far-ultraviolet (FUV) light is mainly produced by bright, young O-type and some B-type stars, but it is also observed in interstellar space without these stars. Called FUV Galactic light (DGL), these lights are mostly known as starlight scattered by interstellar dust. With the recent release of GAIA DR2, not only accurate distance information of stars in our Galaxy, but also accurate three-dimensional distribution maps of interstellar dust of our Galaxy were produced. Based on this, we performed 3-dimensional Monte Carlo dust scattering radiative transfer simulations for FUV light to obtain dust scattered FUV images and compared them with the observed FUV image obtained by FIMS and GALEX. From this, we find the scattering properties of interstellar dust in our Galaxy and suggest the intensity of extragalactic background light. These results are expected to aid in the study of chemical composition, size distribution, shape, and alignment of interstellar dust in our Galaxy.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.195-200
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• 2012

We show how the rotation emission from isolated interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) can explain the so-called anomalous microwave emission (AME). AME has been discovered in the last decade as microwave interstellar emission (10 to 70 GHz) that is in excess compared to the classical emission processes: thermal dust, free-free and synchrotron. The PAHs are the interstellar planar nano-carbons responsible for the near infrared emission bands in the 3 to 15 micron range. Theoretical studies show that under the physical conditions of the interstellar medium (radiation and density) the PAHs adopt supra-thermal rotation velocities, and consequently they are responsible for emission in the microwave range. The first results from the PLANCK mission unexpectedly showed that the AME is not only emitted by specific galactic interstellar clouds, but it is present throughout the galactic plane, and is particularly strong in the cold molecular gas. The comparison of theory and observations shows that the measured emission is fully consistent with rotation emission from interstellar PAHs. We draw the main lines of our PLANCK-AKARI collaborative program which intends to progress on this question by direct comparison of the near infrared (AKARI) and microwave (PLANCK) emissions of the galactic plane.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.117-122
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• 2012

The interstellar dust grains are formed and supplied to interstellar space from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars or supernova remnants, and become constituents of the star- and planet-formation processes that lead to the next generation of stars. Both a qualitative, and a compositional study of this cycle are essential to understanding the origin of the pre-solar grains, the missing sources of the interstellar material, and the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. The AKARI/MIR all-sky survey was performed with two mid-infrared photometric bands centered at 9 and $18{\mu}m$. These data have advantages in detecting carbonaceous and silicate circumstellar dust of AGB stars, and the interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons separately from large grains of amorphous silicate. By using the AKARI/MIR All-Sky point source catalogue, we surveyed C-rich and O-rich AGB stars in our Galaxy, which are the dominant suppliers of carbonaceous and silicate grains, respectively. The C-rich stars are uniformly distributed across the Galactic disk, whereas O-rich stars are concentrated toward the Galactic center, following the metallicity gradient of the interstellar medium, and are presumably affected by the environment of their birth place. We will compare the distributions of the dust suppliers with the distributions of the interstellar grains themselves by using the AKARI/MIR All-Sky diffuse maps. To enable discussions on the faint diffuse interstellar radiation, we are developing an accurate AKARI/MIR All-Sky diffuse map by correcting artifacts such as the ionising radiation effects, scattered light from the moon, and stray light from bright sources.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 1987

By using the recently determined color excess and distance data of classical by Kim (1985), the distribution of interstellar reddening material was studied to see the general picture of the average rate of interstellar absorption out to about 7-8 kpc in the Galactic plane in various directions from the sun.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.65.1-65.1
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• 2013

Icy dust particles in interstellar clouds are considered to play a catalytic role in molecular evolution in space. Atoms and simple molecules constituting the ice mantles of dust particles may be transformed into more complex molecules under the irradiation of UV and cosmic rays. This seminar will present our recent study results for chemistry of ice surfaces, with the emphases on the mechanistic features of elementary reactions and the implications for interstellar molecular evolution. The types of reactions studied include molecule diffusion in ice, proton and hydroxide transfers, and some UV-induced reactions wih astrobiological relevance.