• 천문학회보
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.52.1-52.1
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• 2015

We have recently installed SQUEAN on the 82 inch telescope at the McDonald Observatory, USA. This instrument consists of an ANDOR CCD camera, a focal reducer, an electronic box, an auto guiding system and a new filter wheel which holds up to 20 filters. Currently the filter wheel is equipped with Johnson-Cousins BVRI filters, SDSS rizY and isiz filters, and 50nm medium band pass filters (M625(625nm), M675(675nm), M725(725nm), M775(775nm), M825(825nm), M875(875nm), M925s(925nm), M975(975nm), and M1025(1025nm)). Our medium band pass filter system is suitable with SED fitting. Filter transformation methods are essential for time-domain observations including transient objects, e.g., supernovae, variable stars, and solar system bodies. In this work, we develop a series of equations to convert the open clusters photometry data within these filter systems.

• 천문학회보
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.82.2-82.2
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• 2015

In this talk, we introduce the Lee Sang Gak Telescope (LSGT), a 0.43m telescope that can be operated remotely. This telescope was installed at the Siding Spring Observatory in 2015 October, and since then, it has been operated through a robotic reservation system, remotely from Korea. This telescope is now being used for educational and research activities of SNU Astronomy program. By placing the telescope at a place with an excellent astro-climate in Australia, the observation class activity can include objects in the southern hemisphere to the magnitude limit of V=20 mag at an exposure time of a few minutes. For example, Cepheid stars in Magellanic clouds can be observed during a class activity for constructing the classical Cepheid light curves that has been a key distance measure technique. Research activities such as transient observation and monitoring observation of AGN are possible, and we are currently running a high cadence supernovae search program by monitoring nearby galaxies intensively (see a presentation by C. Choi). The installation of the telescope was made possible from a support from the Seoul.

• 천문학회보
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.79.1-79.1
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• 2015

We describe our ongoing project, Intensive Monitoring Survey of Nearby Galaxies. This survey is designed to study transients such as Supernovae (SNe) in nearby galaxies. Our targets are UV-bright (MUV < -18.4) and nearby (d < 50 Mpc) 50 galaxies selected from a GALEX catalog, whose star formation rates are larger than normal galaxies. High star formation in these galaxies ensures that core-collapse supernova explosions occur more frequently in them than normal galaxies. By monitoring them with a short cadence of a few hours, we expect to discover 5 SNe/yr events. Most importantly, we hope to construct very early light curves in rising phase for some of them, which enables us to understand better the physical properties of progenitor star and the explosion mechanism. To enable such a high cadence observation, we constructed a world wide telescope network covering northern, southern hemisphere distributed over a wide range of longitudes (Korea, US, Australia, Uzbekistan and Spain). Data reduction pipe line, detection and classification algorithms are being developed for an efficient processing of the data. Using the network of telescopes, we expect to reach observe not only SNe but also other transients like GRBs, Asteroid, variable AGNs and gravitaional wave optical counter part.

• 천문학회지
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• 제48권4호
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• pp.207-212
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• 2015

We introduce the Lee Sang Gak Telescope (LSGT), a remotely operated, robotic 0.43-meter telescope. The telescope was installed at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, in 2014 October, to secure regular and exclusive access to the dark sky and excellent atmospheric conditions in the southern hemisphere from the Seoul National University (SNU) campus. Here, we describe the LSGT system and its performance, present example images from early observations, and discuss a future plan to upgrade the system. The use of the telescope includes (i) long-term monitoring observations of nearby galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and supernovae; (ii) rapid follow-up observations of transients such as gamma-ray bursts and gravitational wave sources; and (iii) observations for educational activities at SNU. Based on observations performed so far, we find that the telescope is capable of providing images to a depth of R = 21:5 mag (point source detection) at 5-σ with 15 min total integration time under good observing conditions.

• 천문학회보
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.59.2-59.2
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• 2013

The luminosity evolution of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) and dust extinction play major roles in the systematic uncertainties in the SN cosmology. In order to overcome these obstacles, here we propose to use GMT-GMACS to take spectra for early-type host-galaxies of SNe Ia in the redshift range between 0.2 and 1.0. This high-redshift sample will be taken from Dark Energy Survey (DES), which expects more than 200 early-type hosts at this redshift range. They will be compared with nearby early-type hosts, for which we are now obtaining low-resolution spectra. We will select host-galaxies of same population age range for both nearby and high-redshift samples to reduce the possible evolution effect. Since we are dealing with early-type galaxies, our test is also less affected by dust extinction. We expect that our evolution-free and dust-free dark energy test will provide more robust results on the nature of dark energy.

• 천문학회보
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.44.1-44.1
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• 2013

We investigate the origin of radio emission in nearby early-type galaxies using the European VLBI Network (EVN) at 1.4 GHz. The sample included NGC 1277, which was found to have an over-massive black hole of $1.7{\times}10^{10}M_{\odot}$, and four other early-type galaxies in the Perseus cluster. All the sources were detected above $5{\sigma}$. They show compact radio cores and high brightness temperatures, $10^7{\sim}10^9K$, which implies that radio emission in these objects is non-thermal. While the observed radio luminosities could be consistent with star formation (${\sim}1M_{\odot}yr^{-1}$), the small source size would imply a specific star formation rate (sSFR) of ${\sim}10^6M_{\odot}yr^{-1}kpc^{-2}$. Such a high sSFR rules out ongoing star formation. Supernovae (SNe) are ruled out as well because it is unlikely that we see SNe in all galaxies at the same time, and there is no significant radio variability either. The most plausible scenario is that these galaxies show low luminosity AGN activity in the radio, although there is no sign of AGN activity in other bands. If our interpretation is correct, then regular early-type galaxies may harbor active AGN more often than suspected from observations at other wavelengths.

• 천문학회보
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.75-75
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• 2013

Recent observations have shown that some massive globular clusters (GCs) host multiple stellar populations having different heavy element abundances enriched by supernovae. They usually accompany multiple red giant branches (RGBs) in the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), and are distinguished from most of the other GCs which display variations only in light element abundances. In order to investigate the star formation histories of these peculiar GCs, we have constructed synthetic CMDs based on the updated versions of Yonsei.Yale ($Y^2$) isochrones and horizontal branch evolutionary tracks which include the cases of enhancements in both helium and the total CNO abundances. To estimate ages and helium abundances of subpopulations in each GC, we have compared our models with the observations on the Hess diagram by employing a ${\chi}^2$ minimization technique. In this talk, we will present our progress in the population modeling for these GCs with multiple RGBs.

• 천문학회지
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• 제49권6호
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• pp.233-238
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• 2016

The missing historical record of the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova (SN) event implies a large extinction to the SN, possibly greater than the interstellar extinction to the current SN remnant. Here we investigate the possibility that the guest star that appeared near Cas A in 1592-1593 in Korean history books could have been an 'impostor' of the Cas A SN, i.e., a luminous transient that appeared to be a SN but did not destroy the progenitor star, with strong mass loss to have provided extra circumstellar extinction. We first review the Korean records and show that a spatial coincidence between the guest star and Cas A cannot be ruled out, as opposed to previous studies. Based on modern astrophysical findings on core-collapse SN, we argue that Cas A could have had an impostor and derive its anticipated properties. It turned out that the Cas A SN impostor must have been bright ($M_V=-14.7{\pm}2.2mag$) and an amount of dust with visual extinction of ${\geq}2.8{\pm}2.2mag$ should have formed in the ejected envelope and/or in a strong wind afterwards. The mass loss needs to have been spherically asymmetric in order to see the light echo from the SN event but not the one from the impostor event.

• 천문학회보
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.63.2-63.2
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• 2014

We observed a bright type Ia Supernovae SN 2014J located in the nearby starburst galaxy M82 using BOES (Bohyunsan Optical Echelle Spectrograph) for eight nights from day -11 (Jan. 22) to day +102 (May. 15) with respect to maximum brightness in B-band. We found the lines formed in the ejecta such as Si ($6300{\AA}$), whose velocity is more than 10,000km/s respect to the host galaxy as well as those formed in the circumstellar material (e.g. Na I D [$5890{\AA}$, $5896{\AA}$], 100km/s) Also, we found other weak iron ($5780{\AA}$, $5797{\AA}$, $6376{\AA}$, $6613{\AA}$, and $7543{\AA}$), carbon ($8059{\AA}$) and other unknown elements. These lines are also thought to have been formed in circumstellar material. We expect that this study will contribute to revelation of the nature of the progenitor stars.

• 천문학회보
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.88.1-88.1
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• 2014

Helium mass in the envelope is one of the most important properties in progenitors of type Ib/c supernovae (SNe Ib/c), since SN Ib/c progenitors are distinguished by the presence of He I lines. However, previous progenitor models do not reproduce the required He mass limit($M_{He}$ < $0.14M_{\odot}$) suggested by a spectroscopic analysis of SN Ib/c. In this work, we investigated the effect of overshooting on the evolution of pure helium stars, focusing on the final He mass in the envelope, $M_{He,f}$. We used the MESA code to calculate single helium star models with the initial masses of $M_{init}=5{\sim}30M_{\odot}$, Z=0.02, 0.04 and overshooting parameters of $f_{ov}=0{\sim}0.4$. The final He mass $M_{He,f}$ decreases as $f_{ov}$ increases, due to larger burning core compared to weak overshooting models. Dependence of the final mass $M_{He,f}$ on overshooting is strongest for models with $M_{init}=7{\sim}10M_{\odot}$, and this effect originates from accelerated mass loss during transition between WNE and WC/O phase. However, $M_{He,f}$ exceeds $0.27M_{\odot}$ for all models, which still doesn't meet the criteria of $M_{He}$ < $0.14M_{\odot}$. This implies that mass loss during the post helium burning phase must be enhanced dramatically compared to what the standard models predict.