• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2018

Detecting exoplanets around giant stars sheds light on the later-stage evolution of planetary systems. We observed the M giant HD 18438 and the K giant HD 158996 as part of a Search for Exoplanets around Northern circumpolar Stars (SENS) and obtained 38 and 24 spectra from 2010 to 2017 using the high-resolution Bohyunsan Observatory Echelle Spectrograph (BOES) at the 1.8m telescope of Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory in Korea. We obtained precise RV measurements from the spectra and found long-period radial velocity (RV) variations with period 719.0 days for HD 18438 and 820.2 days for HD 158996. We checked the chromospheric activities using Ca $\text\tiny{II}$ H and $H{\alpha}$ lines, HIPPARCOS photometry and line bisectors to identify the origin of the observed RV variations. In the case of HD 18438, we conclude that the observed RV variations with period 719.0 days are likely to be caused by the pulsations because the periods of HIPPARCOS photometric and $H{\alpha}$ EW variations for HD 18438 are similar to that of RV variations in Lomb-Scargle periodogram, and there are no correlations between bisectors and RV measurements. In the case of HD 158996, on the other hand, we did not find any similarity in the respective periodograms nor any correlation between RV variations and line bisector variations. In addition, the probability that the real rotational period can be as longer than the RV period for HD 158996 is only about 4.3%. Thus we conclude that observed RV variations with a period of 820.2 days of HD 158996 are caused by a planetary companion, which has the minimum mass of 14.0 $M_{Jup}$, the semi-major axis of 2.1 AU, and eccentricity of 0.13 assuming the stellar mass of $1.8 M_{\odot}$. HD 158996 is so far one of the brightest and largest stars to harbor an exoplanet candidate.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.123-126
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• 2016

Microlensing is generally thought to probe planetary systems only out to a few Einstein radii. Microlensing events generated by bound planets beyond about 10 Einstein radii generally do not yield any trace of their hosts, and so would be classified as free floating planets (FFPs). I show that it is already possible, using adaptive optics (AO), to constrain the presence of potential hosts to FFP candidates at separations comparable to the Oort Cloud. With next-generation telescopes, planets at Kuiper-Belt separations can be probed. Next generation telescopes will also permit routine vetting for all FFP candidates, simply by obtaining second epochs 4-8 years after the event. At present, the search for such hosts is restricted to within the "confusion limit" of θ_confus ∼ 0.25′′, but future WFIRST (Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope) observations will allow one to probe beyond this confusion limit as well.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.665-669
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• 2015

The Kepler mission has shown that small planets are extremely common. It is likely that nearly every star in the sky hosts at least one rocky planet. We just need to look hard enough-but this requires vast amounts of telescope time. MINERVA (MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array) is a dedicated exoplanet observatory with the primary goal of discovering rocky, Earth-like planets orbiting in the habitable zone of bright, nearby stars. The MINERVA team is a collaboration among UNSW Australia, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Penn State University, University of Montana, and the California Institute of Technology. The four-telescope MINERVA array will be sited at the F.L. Whipple Observatory on Mt Hopkins in Arizona, USA. Full science operations will begin in mid-2015 with all four telescopes and a stabilised spectrograph capable of high-precision Doppler velocity measurements. We will observe ~100 of the nearest, brightest, Sun-like stars every night for at least five years. Detailed simulations of the target list and survey strategy lead us to expect $15{\pm}4$ new low-mass planets.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2016

The Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) is a wide-field photometric system installed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). Here, we present the overall technical specifications of the KMTNet observation system, test observation results, data transfer and image processing procedure, and finally, the KMTNet science programs. The system consists of three 1.6 m wide-field optical telescopes equipped with mosaic CCD cameras of 18k by 18k pixels. Each telescope provides a 2.0 by 2.0 square degree field of view. We have finished installing all three telescopes and cameras sequentially at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in South Africa, and the Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) in Australia. This network of telescopes, which is spread over three different continents at a similar latitude of about -30 degrees, enables 24-hour continuous monitoring of targets observable in the Southern Hemisphere. The test observations showed good image quality that meets the seeing requirement of less than 1.0 arcsec in I-band. All of the observation data are transferred to the KMTNet data center at KASI via the international network communication and are processed with the KMTNet data pipeline. The primary scientific goal of the KMTNet is to discover numerous extrasolar planets toward the Galactic bulge by using the gravitational microlensing technique, especially earth-mass planets in the habitable zone. During the non-bulge season, the system is used for wide-field photometric survey science on supernovae, asteroids, and external galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.37.2-37.2
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• 2021

Turbulence produces the density and velocity fluctuations in molecular clouds, and dense regions within the density fluctuation are the birthplace of stars. Also, turbulence can produce non-thermal pressure against gravity. Thus, turbulence plays a crucial roles in controlling star formation. However, despite many years of study, the detailed relation between turbulence and star formation remain poorly understood. As part of the Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory (TRAO) Key Science Program (KSP), "mapping Turbulent properties In star-forming MolEcular clouds down to the Sonic scale (TIMES; PI: Jeong-Eun Lee)", we mapped two star-forming molecular clouds, the Orion A and the ρ Ophiuchus molecular clouds, in six molecular lines (¹³CO 1-0/C¹⁸O 1-0, HCN 1-0/HCO⁺ 1-0, and CS 2-1/N₂H⁺ 1-0) using the TRAO 14-m telescope. We applied the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to the observed data in two different ways. The first method is analyzing the variation of line intensities in velocity space to evaluate the velocity power spectrum of underlying turbulence. We investigated the relation between the star formation activities and properties of turbulence. The other method is analyzing the variation of the integrated intensities between the molecular lines to find the characteristic correlation between them. We found that the HCN, HCO⁺, and CS lines well correlate with each other in the integral shaped filament in the Orion A cloud, while the HCO⁺ line is anti-correlate with the HCN and CS lines in L1688 of the Ophiuchus cloud.