• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.54.1-54.1
• /
• 2016

Stellar wind and radiation pressure from massive stars can trigger the formation of new generation of stars. The sequential age distribution of stars, the morphology of cometary globules, and bright-rimmed clouds have been accepted as evidence of triggered star formation. However, these characteristics do not necessarily suggest that new generation of stars are formed by the feedback of massive stars. In order to search for any physical connection between star forming events, we have initiated a study of gas and stellar kinematics in NGC 1893, where two prominent cometary nebulae are facing toward O-type stars. The spectra of gas and stars in optical and near-infrared (NIR) wavelength are obtained with Hectochelle on the 6.5m MMT and Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrograph on the 2.7m Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald observatory. In this study, the radial velocity field of gas across the cluster is investigated using $H{\alpha}$ and [N II] ${\lambda}$ 6584 emission lines, and that of the cometary nebula Sim 130 is also probed using 1-0 S(1) transition line of $H_2$. We report a distinctive velocity field of the cometary nebulae and many ro-vibrational transitions of $H_2$ even at high energy levels in the NIR spectra. These properties indicate the interaction between the cometary nebulae and O-type stars, and this fact can be a clue to triggered star formation in NGC 1893.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.32.2-32.2
• /
• 2012

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic events in the universe, and are known to arise from the death of massive stars in many cases. Their extreme brightness makes it possible to detect them at very high redshift (z > 6.5), well into the epoch of re-ionization, providing us with an opportunity to investigate the deaths of the first stars when the universe was much younger than 1 Gyr. Here, we report the discovery of GRB 100905A, a GRB at $z$ - 7.5 (age of the universe at 700 Myr). Our observation revealed a strong spectral break between z and J band, allowing us to estimate its photometric redshift. Its gamma-ray light curve shows a very short duration of about 0.7 sec, the shortest duration event at z > 5. Investigation of this and three other known GRBs at z > 6.5 reveals that they are all short duration bursts. This is puzzling, considering that GRBs from death of massive stars do not show short duration. We suggest two possible explanations for this: (i) the BAT light curves of the high redshift GRBs suffered from observational selection effect where we are only observing the very tip of the light curve; (ii) the stars in the early universe had a peculiar nature that are different from ordinary stars at lower redshifts.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.95.2-95.2
• /
• 2012

We have compared the geoeffective parameters of halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to predict geomagnetic storms. For this we consider 50 front-side full halo CMEs whose asymmetric cone model parameters and earthward direction parameter were available. For each CME we use its projected velocity (Vp), radial velocity (Vr), angle between cone axis and sky plane (${\gamma}$) from the cone model, earthward direction parameter (D), source longitude (L), and magnetic field orientation (M) of the CME source region. We make a simple and multiple linear regression analysis to find out the relationship between CME parameters and Dst index. Major results are as follows. (1) $Vr{\times}{\gamma}$ has a higher correlation coefficient (cc = 0.70) with the Dst index than the others. When we make a multiple regression of Dst and two parameters ($Vr{\times}{\gamma}$, D), the correlation coefficient increases from 0.70 to 0.77. (2) Correlation coefficients between Dst index and $Vr{\times}{\gamma}$ have different values depending on M and L. (3) Super geomagnetic storms (Dst ${\leq}$ -200 nT) only appear in the western and southward events. Our results demonstrate that not only the cone model parameters together with the earthward direction parameter improve the relationship between CME parameters and Dst index but also the source longitude and its magnetic field orientation play a significant role in predicting geomagnetic storms.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.89.2-89.2
• /
• 2012

Radiation Belt, discovered by Van Allen in 1958, is a region energetic particles are trapped by the Earth's magnetic field. To measure charged particles and fields in the radiation belt, RBSP(Radiation Belt Storm Probes) mission will be launched in September 2012 by NASA. RBSP mission consists of two spacecraft having orbit from 600 km to 30,000 km and rotates the Earth twice a day. This mission is not designed just for scientific purpose but have operational function broadcasting real time data for space weather monitoring. As a program of KASI-NASA cooperation, KASI is constructing RBSP data receiving antenna that will be installed by April in Daejeon. With this antenna system, NASA can receive RBSP data for 24 hours and KASI also get space weather information to protect Korean GEO satellites. In this presentation, we will discuss how we use RBSP data for space weather forecasting. In addition, we will talk about science topics that can be achieved by RBSP mission. Especially we focus on the dusk-side electron precipitation that has been considered as a main mechanism of electron dropout events. We show the dusk-side precipitation is closely associated with radiation belt electron loss with NOAA-POES data, and why RBSP mission is important to understand radiation belt physics.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.41.2-41.2
• /
• 2017

Discovered as the second highest S/N detection of the Planck SZ survey, PLCK G287.0+32.9 is a massive galaxy cluster that belongs to a rare collection of merging clusters that exhibit two radio relics and a radio halo. A feature that makes this cluster even more unique is the separation of the radio relics with one $\sim 400$ kpc to the north-west of the X-ray peak and the other $\sim 2.8$ Mpc to the south-east. This asymmetric configuration requires a complex merging scenario. A key to gaining insight into the events that caused the formation of the merging features is to understand the dark matter mass distribution. Using a weak-lensing technique on deep Subaru and Hubble Space Telescope observations, we map the dark matter mass distribution of PLCK G287.0+32.9. Our investigation detects five significant mass structures. The mass is dominated by a primary structure that is centered near the X-ray peak of the intracluster medium. Four lesser mass structures are detected with two located within $\sim 1\arcmin$ of the primary mass structure, a third to the north-west, and a fourth near the south-east radio relic. Along with these detections, we estimate the mass of each structure and relate their distributions to the intracluster medium and galaxy distributions. In addition, we discuss the relation of the mass structures to the formation of the relics and plausible merging scenarios.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.99-106
• /
• 2007

Statistical analyses were performed to investigate the relative success and accuracy of daily maximum X-ray flux (MXF) predictions, using both multilinear regression and autoregressive time-series prediction methods. As input data for this work, we used 14 solar activity parameters recorded over the prior 2 year period (1989-1990) during the solar maximum of cycle 22. We applied the multilinear regression method to the following three groups: all 14 variables (G1), the 2 so-called 'cause' variables (sunspot complexity and sunspot group area) showing the highest correlations with MXF (G2), and the 2 'effect' variables (previous day MXF and the number of flares stronger than C4 class) showing the highest correlations with MXF (G3). For the advanced three days forecast, we applied the autoregressive timeseries method to the MXF data (GT). We compared the statistical results of these groups for 1991 data, using several statistical measures obtained from a $2{\times}2$ contingency table for forecasted versus observed events. As a result, we found that the statistical results of G1 and G3 are nearly the same each other and the 'effect' variables (G3) are more reliable predictors than the 'cause' variables. It is also found that while the statistical results of GT are a little worse than those of G1 for relatively weak flares, they are comparable to each other for strong flares. In general, all statistical measures show good predictions from all groups, provided that the flares are weaker than about M5 class; stronger flares rapidly become difficult to predict well, which is probably due to statistical inaccuracies arising from their rarity. Our statistical results of all flares except for the X-class flares were confirmed by Yates' $X^2$ statistical significance tests, at the 99% confidence level. Based on our model testing, we recommend a practical strategy for solar X-ray flare predictions.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.86.2-86.2
• /
• 2011

We investigate the evolution of coronal loop emission in the context of the coronal magnetic field topology. New modeling techniques allow us to investigate the magnetic field structure and energy release in active regions (ARs). Using these models and high-resolution multi-wavelength coronal observations from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer and the X-ray Telescope on Hinode, we are able to establish a relationship between the light curves of coronal loops and their associated magnetic topologies for NOAA AR 10963. We examine loops that show both transient and steady emission, and we find that loops that show many transient brightenings are located in domains associated with a high number of separators. This topology provides an environment for continual impulsive heating events through magnetic reconnection at the separators. A loop with relatively constant X-ray and EUV emission, on the other hand, is located in domains that are not associated with separators. This result implies that larger-scale magnetic field reconnections are not involved in heating plasma in these regions, and the heating in these loops must come from another mechanism, such as smallscale reconnections (i.e., nanoflares) or wave heating. Additionally, we find that loops that undergo repeated transient brightenings are associated with separators that have enhanced free energy. In contrast, we find one case of an isolated transient brightening that seems to be associated with separators with a smaller free energy.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.381-405
• /
• 2017

We give a detailed description of the installation and operation of a double-station meteor detection system which formed part of a research & education project between Korea Astronomy Space Science Institute (KASI) and Daejeon Science Highschool. A similar system is currently not existing in South Korea. A total of six light-sensitive CCD cameras were installed with three cameras at SOAO and three cameras at BOAO observatory. A double-station observation of a meteor event enables the determination of the three-dimensional heliocentric orbit in space. This project was initiated in response to the Jinju fireball event in March 2014. The cameras were installed in October/November 2014. The two stations are identical in hardware as well as software. Each station employes sensitive "Watec-902H2" cameras in combination with relatively fast f/1.2 lenses. Various fields of views were used for measuring differences in detection rates of meteor events. We employed the SonotaCo UFO software suite for meteor detection and their subsequent analysis. The system setup as well as installation/operation experience is described and first results are presented. We also give a brief overview of historic as well as recent meteor (fall) detections in South Korea. For more information please consult http://meteor.kasi.re.kr.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.56.2-56.2
• /
• 2016

We present a multi-aperture photometry pipeline for DEEP-South (Deep Ecliptic Patrol of the Southern Sky) time-series data, written in C. The pipeline is designed to do robust high-precision photometry and calibration of non-crowded fields with a varying point-spread function, allowing for the wholesale search and characterization of both temporal and spatial variabilities. Our time-series photometry method consists of three parts: (i) extracting all point sources with several pixel/blind parameters, (ii) determining the optimized aperture for each source where we consider whether the measured flux within the aperture is contaminated by unwanted artifacts, and (iii) correcting position-dependent variations in the PSF shape across the mosaic CCD. In order to provide faster access to the resultant catalogs, we also utilize an efficient indexing technique using compressed bitmap indices (FastBit). Lastly, we focus on the development and application of catalog-based searches that aid the identification of high-probable single events from the indexed database. This catalog-based approach is still useful to identify new point-sources or moving objects in non-crowded fields. The performance of the pipeline is being tested on various sets of time-series data available in several archives: DEEP-South asteroid survey and HAT-South/MMT exoplanet survey data sets.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.87-94
• /
• 2006

The COREA (COsmic ray Research and Education Array in Korea) project aims to build a ground array of particle detectors distributed over Korean Peninsular, through collaborations of high school students, educators, and university researchers, in order to study the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays. COREA array will consist of about 2000 detector stations covering several hundreds of $km^2$ area at its final configuration and detect electrons and muons in extensive air-showers triggered by high energy particles. During the intial phase COREA array will start with a small number of detector stations in Seoul area schools. In this paper, we have studied by Monte Carlo simulations how to select detector sites for optimal detection efficiency for proton triggered air-showers. We considered several model clusters with up to 30 detector stations and calculated the effective number of air-shower events that can be detected per year for each cluster. The greatest detection efficiency is achieved when the mean distance between detector stations of a cluster is comparable to the effective radius of the air-shower of a given proton energy. We find the detection efficiency of a cluster with randomly selected detector sites is comparable to that of clusters with uniform detector spacing. We also considered a hybrid cluster with 60 detector stations that combines a small cluster with ${\Delta}{\iota}{\approx}100m$ and a large cluster with ${Delta}{\iota}{\approx}1km$. We suggest that it can be an ideal configuration for the initial phase study of the COREA project, since it can measure the cosmic rays with a wide range energy, i.e., $10^{16}eV{\leq}E{\leq}10^{19}eV$, with a reasonable detection rate.