• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.63.2-63.2
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• 2011

We present a photometric study of star clusters in three nearby barred spiral galaxies NGC 1300, NGC 1672 and NGC 6217. We use the Hubble Heritage CCD images taken with Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in several filters. We have selected hundreds of star clusters with V $\leq$ 24 mag in each galaxy, based on the morphological parameters and visual inspection. Most of the blue star clusters with B-V $\leq$ 0.5 are strongly concentrated in spiral arms. A significant fraction of these star clusters are distributed in ansae (the joint between spiral arms and bar structure). Some of the blue star clusters are also found in the nuclear starburst region, especially in NGC 1672. A small number of star clusters are found in the bar region. In contrast, the red star clusters with B-V < 0.5 are relatively uniformly located over the entire field of galaxy, and show some central concentration around the bulge. We discuss the physical properties of these star clusters with the expected results from simulations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.35.3-36
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• 2018

One of the most prevalent knowledge about disk galaxies, which dominate the population of the local Universe, is that they consist of stellar structures with different kinematics, such as thin disk, bulge, and halo. Therefore, investigating when and how these components develop in a galaxy is the key to understanding the evolution of galaxies. Using the NewHorizon simulation, we can resolve the detailed structures of galaxies, in the field environment, from the early Universe where star formation and mergers were most active. We first decompose stellar particles in a galaxy into a disk and a dispersion-dominated, spheroidal, component based on their orbits and then see how these components evolve in terms of mass and structure. At high redshift z~3, galaxies are mostly dispersion-dominated as stars are formed misaligned with the galactic rotational axis. At z=1~2, massive galaxies start to dominantly form disk stars, while less massive galaxies do much later. Furthermore, massive galaxies are forming thinner and larger disks with time, and the preexistent disks are heated or even disrupted to become a part of dispersion-dominated component. Thus, the mass growth of spheroidal components at later epochs is dominated by disrupted stars with disk origins and accreted stars at large radii.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.79-80
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• 1996

We performed CCD surface photometry in B,V,R and I filters for three southern spiral galaxies:ESO598-G009,NGC1515 and NGC7456. Isophotal map, luminosity profile, ellipticity profile and position angle profile were obtained for these galaxies using SPIRAL package. The results show that one of the galaxies, ESO598-G009 has relatively large bulge component and changes in position angle due to spiral arms. The NGC7456 has very small bulges; and the isophotal map of the NGC1515 shows that it is a typical spiral galaxy with bar.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.56.2-56.2
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• 2010

M87, a cD galaxy in the Virgo cluster, has 3-10 times larger enclosed mass than the Milky Way at any given galactocentric radius. Thus the globular cluster (GC) system in M87 is expected to have undergone a more significant dynamical evolution than that of the Milky Way if it had started from the same initial mass function (MF) and radial distribution (RD) as the Milky Way. The evolution of MF and RD of the M87 GC system has been calculated using an advanced, realistic Fokker-Planck (FP) model that considers dynamical friction, disk/bulge shocks, and eccentric cluster orbits. We perform hundreds of FP calculations with different initial cluster conditions, and then search a wide parameter space for the best-fit initial GC MF and RD that evolves into the observed present-day GC MF and RD. We also find best-fit initial MFs and RDs for blue and red GC groups, separately.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.71.1-71.1
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• 2011

Significant discrepancies have been found between the dust masses of edge-on spiral galaxies derived from various tracers (optical/near-infrared, far-infrared/sub-millimeter observations, and the variation of dust attenuation with viewing angle). Here we report the first detection of a vertically extended far-ultraviolet (FUV) and near-UV (NUV) emission in an edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891. The vertically extended emission is interpreted as the dust-scattered light due to a extraplanar dust layer in NGC 891 that contains about the same mass as the standard thin dust disk. This new dust component completely encloses the stellar disk and bulge, and solves the puzzle of dust mass.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.143-158
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• 1988

Since the successful observation by Uhuru, the first astronomical satellite, X-ray astronomy has become one of the rapidly developing fields in astronomy. The scientific results provide us the unique opportunity to understand the high energy nature of X-ray sources. We now know that our galaxy contains many different types of X-ray sources such as the compact X-ray sources, galactic bulge sources in addition to the Sun, the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. In this study we review the general properties of galactic X-ray sources, the characteristics of periodic compact X-ray sources, and bursters as well as the models.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.47.1-47.1
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• 2014

We examine the effect of environment on star formation activity of a sample of galaxy group catalogue given in Tempel et al.(2012) constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8. In order to compare galaxies in different environment, we classify galaxies into two groups: galaxies in low density environment and galaxies in high density environment. After matching colors and apparent magnitudes of the galaxies, we are left with 5912 galaxies in each of the environment category. The fraction of star-forming galaxies in low-density environment is ~34%, higher than ~15% in high-density environment. Star-forming galaxies in low density environment have a higher average SFR value than those in high density environment. The bulge-to-disk ratio for galaxies in two different environment shows bimodal distribution. Regardless of the environment, we find galaxies with high star formation rate despite their red (g-r) color, for which the origin enhancing their star formation rate is investigated.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.97-110
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• 2000

Planetary nebulae provide a direct way to probe elemental abundances, their distributions and their gradients in populations in nearby galaxies. We investigate bulge planetary nebulae in M 31 and M 32 using the strong emission lines, H$\alpha$, He I, [O III], [N II], [S II] and [Ne III]. From the [O III] 4363/5007 line ratio and the [O II] 3727/3729, we determine the electron temperatures and number densities. With a standard modeling procedure (Hyung, 1994), we fit the line intensities and diagnostic temperatures, and as a result, we derive the chemical abundances of individual planetary nebulae in M 31 and M 32. The derived chemical abundances are compared with those of the well-known Galactic planetary nebulae or the Sun. The chemical abundances of M 32 appear to be less enhanced compared to the Galaxy or M 31.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.61.3-61.3
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• 2019

We report the status of KMTNet (Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) microlensing. From KMTNet event-finder, we are annually detecting over 2500 microlensing events. In 2018, we have carried out a real-time alert for only the Northern bulge fields. It was very helpful to select Spitzer targets. Thanks to the real-time alert, KMT-only events for which OGLE and MOA could not detect have been largely increased. The KMTNet event-finder and alert-finder algorithms are being upgraded every year. From these, we found 18 exoplanets and various interesting events, such as an exomoon-candidate, a free-floating candidate, and brown dwarfs, which are very difficult to be detected by other techniques including radial velocity and transit. In 2019, the KMTNet alert will be available in real-time for all bulge fields. As before, we will continue to collaborate with Spitzer team to measure the microlens parallaxes, which are required for estimating physical parameters of the lens. Thus, the KMTNet alert will be helpful to select Spitzer targets again. Also we plan to do follow-up observations for high-magnification events to study the planet multiplicity function. The KMTNet alert will play an important role to do follow-up observations for high-magnification events. Also, we will search for free-floating planets with short timescale (< 3 days) to study the planet frequency in our Galaxy.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.57-69
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• 2019

We present an analysis of the chemical abundances and kinematics of six low-mass dwarf stars, previously claimed to be candidate hypervelocity stars (HVSs). We obtained moderate-resolution (R ~ 6000) spectra of these stars to estimate the abundances of several chemical elements (Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, and Ni), and derived their space velocities and orbital parameters using proper motions from the Gaia Data Release 2. All six stars are shown to be bound to the Milky Way, and in fact are not even considered high-velocity stars with respect to the Galactic rest frame. Nevertheless, we attempt to characterize their parent Galactic stellar components by simultaneously comparing their element abundance patterns and orbital parameters with those expected from various Galactic stellar components. We find that two of our program stars are typical disk stars. For four stars, even though their kinematic probabilistic membership assignment suggests membership in the Galactic disk, based on their distinct orbital properties and chemical characteristics, we cannot rule out exotic origins as follows. Two stars may be runaway stars from the Galactic disk. One star has possibly been accreted from a disrupted dwarf galaxy or dynamically heated from a birthplace in the Galactic bulge. The last object may be either a runaway disk star or has been dynamically heated. Spectroscopic follow-up observations with higher resolution for these curious objects will provide a better understanding of their origin.