• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.101-115
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• 1985

Using Brandt model the mess distribution of the late type spiral galaxy NGC 6946 was derived, and the total mass was reestimated to understand the M/L ratio of this galaxy. Two kinds of the rotation curve with shape parameter n=1 and 3.3 were examined. The following are the main results; (1) The total masses of NGC 6946 are $3.1\times$$10^{11}$ M(n=1) AND $2.8\times$$10^{11}$ M(n=3.3) respectively. and the corresponding M/L are about 17 and 16 for both cases. (2) The optical image in the blue light, whose radius is 9.6 kpc, has 8$\times$$10^{10}$ M and 1.4$\times$$10^{11}$ M. These give the value of M/L about 5 and 8 respectively. (3) The masses and M/L of the nuclear region within 1.2 kpc are 4.0$\times$$10^{9}$ M 4.7$\times$$10^9$ M and 3, 4 for both cases. Those of the disk from 1.2 kpc to 9.6 kpc are 7.6$\times$1$10^{10}$M, 1.4$\times$$10^{11}$M, and 5, 8. (4) The masses of the outer halo extended to few hundreds kiloparsecs are 2.3$\times$$10^{11}$ M and 1.4$\times$$10^{11}$M. The corresponding M/L are about 62 and 37.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.371-374
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• 2015

Classical Cepheids (hereafter Cepheids) belong to a class of important variable stars that can be used to determine distances to nearby galaxies via the famous period-luminosity (PL) relations, i.e. the Leavitt Law. In turn, these distances can then be used to calibrate a host of secondary distance indicators located well within the Hubble flow, and ultimately determine the Hubble constant in a manner independent of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements. Some recent progress in determining the Hubble constant to within ~ 3% level via the Cepheid-based distance scale ladder (the SH0ES and the Carnegie Hubble Program) were first summarized in this Proceeding, followed by a brief discussion on the prospect of using ultra-long period Cepheids (ULPC) in future distance scale work. ULPC are those Cepheids with periods longer than 80 days, which seem to follow a different PL relation than their shorter period Cepheids. It has been suggested that ULPC can be used to determine the Hubble constant in "one-step". However, based on the two ULPCs found in M31, it was found that the large dispersion in derived distance moduli leads to a less accurate distance modulus to M31 compared to the classical Cepheids. This finding might raise an alert regarding the use of ULPCs in future distance scale work.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.68.2-68.2
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• 2012

We present a discovery of two new globular clusters in the Hubble Space Telescope archive images of the M81 group. They are located much farther from both M81 and M82 in the sky, compared with previously known star clusters in these galaxies. Both clusters show that higher luminosity and larger effective radius than typical globular clusters in Milky Way and M81. Using the available spectroscopic data provided by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we derive a low metallicity with [Fe/H] ${\approx}$ -2.3 and an old age ~14 Gyr for GC-2. The I-band magnitude of the tip of the RGB for GC-1 is consistent with that of the halo stars in the GC-1 and GC-2 field. However, that of GC-2 is 0.26 mag fainter than its field. It shows that GC-2 is about 400 kpc behind the M81 halo along our line of sight. The deprojected distance to GC-2 from M81 is much larger than any other known globular clusters in the local universe. We discuss the possible scenarios to explain the existence of globular cluster in such an extremely isolated environment.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.44.3-44.3
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• 2019

Massive stars, supernovae, and kilonovae are among the most luminous radiation sources in the universe. Observations usually show near- to mid-infrared (NIR-MIR, 1-5~micron) emission excess from H II regions around young massive star clusters (YMSCs) and anomalous dust extinction and polarization towards Type Ia supernova (SNe Ia). The popular explanation for such NIR-MIR excess and unusual dust properties is the predominance of small grains (size a<0.05micron) relative to large grains (a>0.1micron) in the local environment of these strong radiation sources. The question of why small grains are predominant in these environments remains a mystery. Here we report a new mechanism of dust destruction based on centrifugal stress within extremely fast rotating grains spun-up by radiative torques, namely the RAdiative Torque Disruption (RATD) mechanism, which can resolve this question. We find that RATD can destroy large grains located within a distance of ~ 1 pc from a massive star of luminosity L~ 10^4L_sun and a supernova. This increases the abundance of small grains relative to large grains and successfully reproduces the observed NIR-MIR excess and anomalous dust extinction/polarization. We show that small grains produced by RATD can also explain the steep far-UV rise in extinction curves toward starburst and high redshift galaxies, as well as the decrease of the escape fraction of Ly-alpha photons observed from HII regions surrounding YMSCs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.35.2-35.2
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• 2021

Blue straggler stars (BSs) are "rejuvenated" main sequence stars first recognized by Allan Sandage from his observation of the prominent northern globular cluster M3 in the year of 1953. BSs are now known to be present in diverse stellar environments including open clusters, globular clusters, dwarf galaxies, and even the field populations of the Milky Way. This makes them a very useful tool in a wide range of astrophysical applications: Particularly BSs are considered to have a crucial role in the evolution of stellar clusters because they affect on the dynamics, the binary population, and the history of the stellar evolution of the cluster they belong to. Here we report a part of the preliminary results from our ongoing research on the BSs in the two metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Hodge 11 and NGC1466. Using the high precision multi-band images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we extract time-series photometry to search for the signal of periodic variations in the luminosity of the BSs. Our preliminary results confirm that several BSs are intrinsic "short period (0.05 < P < 0.25 days)" variable stars with either pulsating or eclipsing types. We will discuss our investigation on the properties of those variable BS candidates in the context of the formation channels of these exotic main sequence stars, and their roles in the dynamical evolution of the host star clusters.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 2009

We investigate the dependence of star formation rate and Active Galaxy Nuclei (AGN) frequency on the bar properties, especially the bar strength, using SDSS DR6. To better represent the bar strength, we divided the bars into 6 classes according to their length and axial ratios. There seems to be a fairly good correlation between the star formation rate derived from $H{\alpha}$ emission lines and the bar strength, whereas there is no apparent correlation between the AGN activity and the bar strength. We interpret that the former correlation is due to the dependence of bar-driven gas inflow on the strength of bar. The lack of correlation between AGN and bar properties suggests that the accretion of gas onto a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is regulated by the interplay between the bar and SMBH. The frequency of AGN seems to be dependent on the background density but the star formation rate does not. It suggests that star formation is a localized phenomenon that is mostly determined by the gas density in a galaxy, while AGN activity is more closely related to the host property such as mass and luminosity that are thought to be dependent on the environment through the density-luminosity relation.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.81-87
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• 2003

It is suggested that a flying-by star in a hot accretion disk may cool the hot accretion disk by the Comptonization of the stellar emission. Such a stellar cooling can be observed in the radio frequency regime since synchrotron luminosity depends strongly on the electron temperature of the accretion flow. If a bright star orbiting around the supermassive black hole cools the hot disk, one should expect a quasi-periodic modulation in radio, or even possible an anti-correlation of luminosities in radio and X-rays. Recently, the unprecedentedly accurate infrared imaging of the Sagittarius A$\ast$ for about ten years enables us to resolve stars around it and thus determine orbital parameters of the currently closest star S2. We explore the possibility of using such kind of observation to distinguish two quite different physical models for the central engine of the Sagittarius A$\ast$, that is, a hot accretion disk model and a jet model. We have attempted to estimate the observables using the observed parameters of the star S2. The relative difference in the electron temperature is a few parts of a thousand at the epoch when the star S2 is near at the pericenter. The relative radio luminosity difference with and without the stellar cooling is also small of order $10^{-4}$, particularly even when the star S2 is near at the pericenter. On the basis of our findings we tentatively conclude that even the currently closest pass of the star S2 is insufficiently close enough to meaningfully constrain the nature of the Sagittarius A$\ast$ and distinguish two competing models. This implies that even though Bower et al. (2002)have found no periodic radio flux variations in their data set from 1981 to 1998, which is naturally expected from the presence of a hot disk, a hot disk model cannot be conclusively ruled out. This is simply because the energy bands they have studied are too high to observe the effect of the star S2 even if it indeed interacts with the hot disk. In other words, even if there is a hot accretion disk the star like S2 has imprints in the frequency range at v $\le$ 100 MHz.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.225-230
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• 2017

The extragalactic background suggests half the energy generated by stars was reprocessed into the infrared (IR) by dust. At z~1.3, 90% of star formation is obscured by dust. To fully understand the cosmic star formation history, it is critical to investigate infrared emission. AKARI has made deep mid-IR observation using its continuous 9-band filters in the NEP field ($5.4deg^2$), using ~10% of the entire pointed observations available throughout its lifetime. However, there remain 11,000 AKARI infrared sources undetected with the previous CFHT/Megacam imaging (r ~25.9ABmag). Redshift and IR luminosity of these sources are unknown. These sources may contribute significantly to the cosmic star-formation rate density (CSFRD). For example, if they all lie at 1< z <2, the CSFRD will be twice as high at the epoch. We are carrying out deep imaging of the NEP field in 5 broad bands (g, r, i, z, and y) using Hyper Suprime-Camera (HSC), which has 1.5 deg field of view in diameter on Subaru 8m telescope. This will provide photometric redshift information, and thereby IR luminosity for the previously-undetected 11,000 faint AKARI IR sources. Combined with AKARI's mid-IR AGN/SF diagnosis, and accurate midIR luminosity measurement, this will allow a complete census of cosmic star-formation/AGN accretion history obscured by dust.