• Title/Summary/Keyword: comets

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Detection of Irradiated Astragalus membranaeus Bunge and Havenia duzcis Thumb Using DNA Comet Assay

  • Yi, Jin-Hee ;Song, Kyung-Bin
    • Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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    • v.7 no.3
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    • pp.323-326
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    • 2002
  • Ionizing radiation can be used to sanitize herbs contaminated by various microorganisms. However, health concerns related to irradiation damage to complex molecules in plants necessitate that methods be developed to monitor such damage. To elucidate DNA damage of herbs caused by irradiation, the DNA comet assay was used for Astragalus membranaceus Bunge and Havenia dulcis Thumb, irradiated at 1, 5, 7, and 10 kGy. With increasing irradiation doses, the tails of comets became longer with average tail length increasing from 17 (non-irradiated) to 124 (10 kGy) $\mu$m in Astragalus membranaceus Bunge. Above 7 kGy, some of the tails were separated from the heads of comets. Distribution patterns of the tail length of In comets selected randomly in the irradiated herbs were analyzed to quantify the DNA damage. These results clearly suggest that the DNA comet assay is an effective and inexpensive tool for the detection of irradiation damage to DNA in herbs.

Technological Trends in NEO Space Missions (NEO 우주탐사의 기술 동향)

  • Yoon, Yong-Sik;Choi, Jung-Su;Kim, Hyung-Wan
    • Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.102-109
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    • 2011
  • NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood. When the NEOs with certain size impact in the Earth's surface, it could cause a serious disaster. However, the NEOs that are potentially the most hazardous because they can closely approach the Earth are also the objects that could bemost easily exploited for their raw materials. This paper presents the characteristics of NEOs and the technology trend of advanced countries on spacecraft missions to comets and asteroids.

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DERIVATIONS OF $^{18}O$ ABUNDANCES IN COMETS USING THE ULTRAVIOLET BANDS OF $^{18}OH$

  • Kim, Sang-Joon
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.147-150
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    • 2000
  • A fluorescent equilibrium model for the 1-0 band of the A-X system of ${18}^{OH}$ has been constructed. Line positions and intensities have been calculated for possible future spectroscopic observations of these bands from space in order to derive ${18}^{O}/{16}^{O}$ ratios in comets. It is demonstrated that the strong lines of the 1-0 band can be observable for a moderately bright comet using a high resolution spectrometer with a reasonable exposure time.

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Evaluation of the Efficiency of an Inverse Exponential Kernel Estimator for Spherical Data

  • Park, Hyun Suk
    • Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.77-84
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    • 2013
  • This paper deals with the relative efficiency of two kernel estimators $\hat{f}_n$ and $\hat{g}_n$ by using spherical data, as proposed by Park (2012), and Bai et al. (1988), respectively. For this, we suggest the computing flows for the relative efficiency on the 2-dimensional unit sphere. An evaluation procedure between two estimators (given the same kernels) is also illustrated through the observed data on normals to the orbital planes of long-period comets.

DISTRIBUTION OF PERIHELIA FOR SOHO SUNGRAZING COMETS AND THE PROSPECTIVE GROUPS (SOHO SUNGRAZING COMET의 근일점 분포와 예상되는 새로운 그룹들)

  • Lee, Sung-Eun;Yi, Yu;Kim, Yong-Ha;Brandt, John.C.
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.227-234
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    • 2007
  • A comet that passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion is called a sungrazing comet (of sungrazer). Around 1270 sungrazing comets have been discovered on coronagraph images from the SOHO (SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft since 1996 up to April, 2007. The major groups orbiting around the Sun in similar orbits are named as Kreutz, Meyer, Marsden, and Kracht 1&2 families. About 85% of SOHO comets belong to the Kreutz family with perihelion on distances of less than about $2{\sim}3R_{\bigodot}$. The distributions of perihelia and the orbital elements of SOHO sungrazing comets are analyzed. We investigated closely spaced pairs and clusters in the orbital element space. Here, we suggest three prospective groups of the sungrazing cornets: [(C/2000 Y6, C/2000 Y7), (C/2000 V4, C/2001 T5), (C/2003 H6, C/2003 H7)].

Polarimetry of Three Asteroids in Comet-Like Orbits (ACOs)

  • Geem, Jooyeon;Ishiguro, Masateru;Bach, Yoonsoo P.;Kuroda, Daisuke;Naito, Hiroyuki;Hanayama, Hidekazu;Kim, Yoonyoung;Kwon, Yuna G.;Jin, Sunho;Sekiguchi, Tomohiko;Okazaki, Ryo;Vaubaillon, Jeremie J.;Imai, Masataka;Ono, Tatsuharu;Futamuts, Yuki;Takagi, Seiko;Sato, Mitsuteru;Kuramoto, Kiyoshi;Watanabe, Makoto
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.44 no.1
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    • pp.65-65
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    • 2019
  • Near-Earth objects consist of a mixture of bodies originated from outer solar system and main asteroidal belt, which are recognized as comets and near-Earth asteroids. In principal, they have orbits distinguishable by their orbital elements. It is, however, that some comets are recognized as asteroids because they could have lost the most of volatile materials in their subsurface layers. Due to their asteroidal appearances, it has been challenging to discriminate such dormant comets from a list of known asteroids. Here we propose to utilize polarimetric technique for finding such dormant comets. We thus conducted a polarimetric observations of three candidates of dormant comet nuclei, (331471) 1984 QY1, (3552) Don Quixote and (944) Hidalgo, by using the 1.6-m Pirka Telescope at the Nayoro observatory (operated by Hokkaido University, Japan). We selected these asteroids in comet-like orbits (ACOs) based on the orbital elements (i.e., the Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter TJ < 3). We found that 1984 QY1 has a polarimetric albedo (geometric albedo determined via polarimetry) pV = 0.16 +/- 0.06 while both Don Quixote and Hidalgo have Rc-band polarimetric albedos pR < 0.05. In accordance with the polarimetric result together with a dynamical analysis, we surmised that 1984 QY1 could be an S-type asteroid evolved into the current orbit via 3:1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter. On the contrary, the previous spectroscopic studies indicated that Don Quixote and Hidalgo are classified into D-type taxonomic group, which are typical of comet nuclei. In this presentation, we will introduce our polarimetric observations of ACOs and emphasize that polarimetry is powerful for discriminating the asteroidal and cometary origins.

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Dynamical Evolution of the Dark Asteroids with Tisserand parameter

  • Kim, Yun-Yeong;Ishiguro, Masateru;Jeong, Jin-Hun;Yang, Hong-Gyu;Usui, Fumihiko
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.37 no.1
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    • pp.98.2-98.2
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    • 2012
  • It has been speculated that there could be dormant or extinct comets in the list of known asteroids, which appear asteroidal but are icy bodies originating from outer solar system. However, little is known about the existence of such objects not only because of their complicated chaotic orbits but also because of the limited physical and chemical information. AKARI infrared space mission gave us brand-new albedo catalog of Near Earth Objects, which clues in a better understanding of dark asteroids using both albedo data and dynamical models could be possible. Dark Asteroids with low () albedos are thought to be dormant or extinct comet candidates due to its similar albedo values with comet nucleus. In addition to this, dynamical models indicate that candidate cometary objects have Tisserand parameter. Based on both observational and dynamical criteria, we obtained 196 dark asteroids lists. We numerically integrated backward their orbits using the N-body code Mercury6 (Chambers 1999) during 10 million years to track the past orbits of bodies. We picked out 14 comet candidates that show abnormal orbits in the past by analyzing orbital elements among 196 candidates. From the dynamical evolution simulations, we finally obtained 3 most-likely comet candidates; 944Hidalgo,2006QL39,andP/SidingSpring.Twoofthemareconsistent with past research; P/Siding Spring is a known comet and 944 Hidalgo is a most-likely comet candidate in asteroid populations. Since they all have stable orbits in nowadays although they have unstable orbit in the past, we could conclude that they may be not active comets but dormant or extinct comets.

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The optical spectra of zodiacal light

  • Yang, Hongu;Ishiguro, Masateru
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.38 no.1
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    • pp.60.1-60.1
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    • 2013
  • Numerous dust particles are scattered in the interplanetary space of the solar system (Interplanetary Dust Particles; IDPs). The origin of the IDPs is one of the major questions in the solar system astronomy because IDPs are being removed from the solar system within a few million years by photon drag. Comets and asteroids were pointed out as the possible sources of IDPs. Although several dust supplying mechanisms from comets and asteroids have been revealed, amount of contribution from each sources are still not clear. Zodiacal light is sunlight scattered by IDPs. Spectra of zodiacal light can supply important observational clue to reveal the origin of the IDPs, because comets and each type of asteroids have different kind of spectra. However, reflectance spectrum of zodiacal light was not measured at the wavelength of weak atmospheric contamination. We measured the reflectance spectra of zodiacal light from $5000{\AA}$ to $7000{\AA}$. We used open data obtained by the Subaru/FOCAS instruments archived in the SMOKA database. From the longslit spectrum data, we measured spectrum of sky background and estimated flux from the sources other than the zodiacal light. We compared it with the spectra of each type of minor bodies in the solar system, and meteorites originated from these bodies.

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