• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.67-71
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• 2017

Debris disks are circumstellar dust disks around main-sequence stars. They are important observational clues to understanding the planetary system formation. The zodiacal light is the thermal emission from the dust disk in our Solar system. For a comprehensive understanding of the nature and the evolution of dust disks around main-sequence stars, we try a comparative study of debris disks and the zodiacal light. We search for debris disks using the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky point source catalog. By applying accurate flux estimate of the photospheric emission based on the follow-up near-infrared observations with IRSF, we have improved the detection rate of debris disks. For a detailed study of the structure and grain properties in the zodiacal dust cloud, as an example of dust disks around main-sequence stars, we analyze the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky diffuse maps. As a result of the debris disks search, we found old (>1 Gyr) debris disks which have large excess emission compared to their age, which cannot be explained simply by the conventional steady-state evolution model. From the zodiacal light analysis, we find the possibility that the dust grains trapped in the Earth's resonance orbits have increased by a factor of ~3 in the past ~20 years. Combining these results, we discuss the non-steady processes in debris disks and the zodiacal light.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.103-123
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• 2013

Star clusters are superb astrophysical laboratories containing cospatial and coeval samples of stars with similar chemical composition. We initiate the Sejong Open cluster Survey (SOS) - a project dedicated to providing homogeneous photometry of a large number of open clusters in the SAAO Johnson-Cousins' UBV I system. To achieve our main goal, we pay much attention to the observation of standard stars in order to reproduce the SAAO standard system. Many of our targets are relatively small sparse clusters that escaped previous observations. As clusters are considered building blocks of the Galactic disk, their physical properties such as the initial mass function, the pattern of mass segregation, etc. give valuable information on the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk. The spatial distribution of young open clusters will be used to revise the local spiral arm structure of the Galaxy. In addition, the homogeneous data can also be used to test stellar evolutionary theory, especially concerning rare massive stars. In this paper we present the target selection criteria, the observational strategy for accurate photometry, and the adopted calibrations for data analysis such as color-color relations, zero-age main sequence relations, Sp - MV relations, Sp - $T_{eff}$ relations, Sp - color relations, and $T_{eff}$ - BC relations. Finally we provide some data analysis such as the determination of the reddening law, the membership selection criteria, and distance determination.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.143.1-143.1
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• 2011

Deep Ca,b,y images obtained from the CTIO 4m Blaco telescope are used to investigate the multiple stellar populations of red giant branch (RGB) and sub-giant branch (SGB) in Galactic globular clusters NGC 6656 and NGC 6723. For NGC 6656, confirming the result of Lee et al. (2009), we find two discrete populations of the RGB stars of which mean color separation is about 0.2 mag in hk[=(Ca-b)-(b-y)] index. Furthermore, we also find the bimodel distribution of the SGB stars in (hk, y) color-magnitude diagram. A new finding is that the (hk, y) color-magnitude diagram of NGC 6723 shows two distinct RGB stars with different calcium abundances of which mean color separation is about 0.12 mag in hk index. This multiple stellar feature has not been observed in previous observation, suggesting that NGC 6723 may also be a possible relic of dwarf galaxies that merged into the Milky Way in the past. Thus our result adds further constraints to the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation. Unfortunately, the split of SGB stars in NGC 6723 is not obvious. We will present some statistical results to compare properties of two populations in two clusters.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2003

There is accumulating evidence for a strong link between nuclear starbursts and AGN. Molecular gas in the central regions of galaxies plays a critical role in fueling nuclear starburst activity and feeding central AGN. The dense molecular ISM is accreted to the nuclear regions by stellar bars and galactic interactions. Here we describe recent observational results for the OB star forming regions in M51 and the nuclear star burst in Arp 220 - both of which have approximately the same rate of star formation per unit mass of ISM. We suggest that the maximum efficiency for forming young stars is an Eddington-like limit imposed by the radiation pressure of newly formed stars acting on the interstellar dust. This limit corresponds to approximately 500 $L_{\bigodot} / M_{\bigodot}$ for optically thick regions in which the radiation has been degraded to the NIR. Interestingly, we note that some of the same considerations can be important in AGN where the source of fuel is provided by stellar evolution mass-loss or ISM accretion. Most of the stellar mass-loss occurs from evolving red giant stars and whether their mass-loss can be accreted to a central AGN or not depends on the radiative opacity of the mass-loss material. The latter depends on whether the dust survives or is sublimated (due to radiative heating). This, in turn, is determined by the AGN luminosity and the distance of the mass-loss stars from the AGN. Several AGN phenomena such as the broad emission and absorption lines may arise in this stellar mass-loss material. The same radiation pressure limit to the accretion may arise if the AGN fuel is from the ISM since the ISM dust-to-gas ratio is the same as that of stellar mass-loss.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.129-131
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• 2015

We have initiated single-dish monitoring observations of ~400 methanol maser sources at 6.7 GHz using the Hitachi 32-m radio telescope from December 2012 to systematically research periodic flux variations, which are observed in some methanol maser sources associated with high-mass (proto-)stars. In our monitoring, we have made daily monitoring, so that each source has been observed every nine days with an integration time of 5 min (typical $3{\sigma}$ detection sensitivities of 0.9 Jy). The monitoring observations help us statistically understand periodic flux variations with a period longer than 50 days. As an initial result, we present a new detection of periodic flux variations in the 6.7 GHz methanol maser source G 036.70+00.09. The period of the flux variations is ~53 days (~0.019 cycles $day^{-1}$), and seems to be stable over 9 cycles, at least until the middle of August 2014.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.43.1-43.1
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• 2018

Star formation in galaxies predominantly takes place in giant molecular clouds (GMCs). While it is widely believed that UV radiation feedback from young massive stars can destroy natal GMCs by exciting HII regions and driving their expansion, our understanding on how this actually occurs remains incomplete. To quantitatively assess the effect of UV radiation feedback on cloud disruption, we conduct a series of theoretical studies on the dynamics of HII regions and its role in controlling the star formation efficiency (SFE) and lifetime of GMCs in a wide range of star-forming environments. We first develop a semi-analytic model for the expansion of spherical dusty HII regions driven by the combination of gas and radiation pressures, finding that GMCs in normal disk galaxies are destroyed by gas-pressure driven expansion with SFE < 10%, while more dense and massive clouds with higher SFE are disrupted primarily by radiation pressure. Next, we turn to radiation hydrodynamic simulations of GMC dispersal to allow for self-consistent star formation as well as inhomogeneous density and velocity structures arising from supersonic turbulence. For this, we develop an efficient parallel algorithm for ray tracing method, which enables us to probe a range of cloud masses and sizes. Our parameter study shows that the net SFE, lifetime (measured in units of free-fall time), and the importance of radiation pressure (relative to photoionization) increase primarily with the initial surface density of the cloud. Unlike in the idealized spherical model, we find that the dominant mass loss mechanism is photoevaporation rather than dynamical ejection and that a significant fraction of radiation escapes through low optical-depth channels. We will discuss the astronomical.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.343-355
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• 2015

There is much observational evidence that active star formation is taking place in the Hii regions Sh 2-255 – 257. We present a photometric study of this star forming region (SFR) using imaging data obtained in passbands from the optical to the mid-infrared, in order to study the star formation process. A total of 218 members were identified using various selection criteria based on their observational properties. The SFR is reddened by at least E(B −V ) = 0.8 mag, and the reddening law toward the region is normal (R_V = 3.1). From the zero-age main sequence fitting method it is confirmed that the SFR is 2.1 ± 0.3 kpc from the Sun. The median age of the identified members is estimated to be about 1.3 Myr from a comparison of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD) with stellar evolutionary models. The initial mass function (IMF) is derived from the HRD and the near-infrared (J, J −H) color-magnitude diagram. The slope of the IMF is about Γ = −1.6 ± 0.1, which is slightly steeper than that of the Salpeter/Kroupa IMF. It implies that low-mass star formation is dominant in the SFR. The sum of the masses of all the identified members provides the lower limit of the cluster mass (169M_⊙). We also analyzed the spectral energy distribution (SED) of pre-main sequence stars using the SED fitting tool of Robitaille et al., and confirm that there is a significant discrepancy between stellar mass and age obtained from two different methods based on the SED fitting tool and the HRD.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.135-139
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• 2010

We present the result of our investigation on the impact of the low Solar abundance of Asplund and collaborators (2004) on the derived ages for the oldest star clusters based on isochrone fittings. We have constructed new stellar models and corresponding isochrones using this new solar mixture with a proper Solar calibration. We have found that the use of the Asplund et al. (2004) metallicity causes the typical ages for old globular clusters in the Milky Way to be increased roughly by 10%. Although this may appear small, it has a significant impact on the interpretation for the formation epoch of Milky Way globular clusters. The Asplund et al. (2004) abundance may not necessarily threaten the current concordance cosmology but would suggest that Milky Way globular clusters formed before the reionization epoch and before the main galaxy body starts to build up. This is in contrast to the current understanding on the galaxy formation.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.65-69
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• 2010

Observations of large samples of galaxies from low to high redshifts are composing a picture of remarkable simplicity: (1) The star formation rate (SFR) of starforming galaxies scales almost linearly with mass, strongly decline with cosmic time, and exhibits very small scatter around the average relation. (2) Due to the high observed SFRs the mass of galaxies at high redshifts must increase very rapidly, and yet the mass function of star forming galaxies evolves only very slightly with redshift. (3) At all redshifts the fraction of quenched (passively evolving) galaxies increases with galactic stellar mass and with local overdensity, with the remarkable property that the relative efficiency of "mass quenching" is independent of environment, and that of "environment quenching" is independent of mass. In a recent paper by the zCOSMOS collaboration, Peng et al. (2010) demonstrate that these three empirical facts suffice to account for the observed evolution of the galaxy mass function and naturally generate the "double-Schechter" mass function for quenched galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.507-509
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• 2015

This work aims to study the evolution of galaxies, located in the dense environment of the NGC 4095 compact group, which have recession velocities 6,000 < v ($km\;s^{-1}$) < 8,000. Imaging observations for BV $R_c$ broad-band, and [$S\small{II}$] and red-continuum narrow-band were carried out with the 2.4 m Thai National Telescope (TNT) at Doi Inthanon, Chiang Mai, Thailand. The sample contains 13 galaxies, consisting of 8 spirals, 4 ellipticals and 1 irregular morphological type. Late type galaxies tend to be bluer than early type galaxies. The results show that most of the late type galaxies have ongoing star formation activity, which could be triggered by galaxy-galaxy or tidal interactions, and that young massive stars in these galaxies cause their colors to be bluer than the early type galaxies.