• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.50.3-51
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• 2016

Recent analysis on the thermophysical property of asteroids revealed that their thermal inertia decrease with their sizes at least for main belt asteroids. However, little is known about that of comet-like bodies. In this work we utilized a simple thermophysical model (TPM) to calculate the thermal inertia of a bare nucleus of the comet P/2006 HR30 (Siding Spring) and an asteroid in comet-like orbit 107P/(4015) Wilson-Harrington from AKARI observation data. From five spectroscopic observations of the targets, we find out that the former has thermal inertia of around $2,000J\;m^{-2}K^{-1}s^{-1/2}$ (using pV = 0.055) and the latter has about $1,000-2000J\;m^{-2}K^{-1}s^{-1/2}$ (using pV = 0.055 and 0.043, respectively). These are high enough for both of them to deposit water ice at few centimeters depth, and hence it is difficult to say they are cometary based on the results of this study. These values, however, dependent significantly on the errors of observation and the uncertainties of the input parameters, as well as other conditions which are ignored in simple TPM approach, such as shape model and surface roughness. Further detailed analyses on these cometary bodies will shed light on our understanding of the detailed surfacial characteristics of them.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.98.2-98.2
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• 2012

It has been speculated that there could be dormant or extinct comets in the list of known asteroids, which appear asteroidal but are icy bodies originating from outer solar system. However, little is known about the existence of such objects not only because of their complicated chaotic orbits but also because of the limited physical and chemical information. AKARI infrared space mission gave us brand-new albedo catalog of Near Earth Objects, which clues in a better understanding of dark asteroids using both albedo data and dynamical models could be possible. Dark Asteroids with low () albedos are thought to be dormant or extinct comet candidates due to its similar albedo values with comet nucleus. In addition to this, dynamical models indicate that candidate cometary objects have Tisserand parameter. Based on both observational and dynamical criteria, we obtained 196 dark asteroids lists. We numerically integrated backward their orbits using the N-body code Mercury6 (Chambers 1999) during 10 million years to track the past orbits of bodies. We picked out 14 comet candidates that show abnormal orbits in the past by analyzing orbital elements among 196 candidates. From the dynamical evolution simulations, we finally obtained 3 most-likely comet candidates; 944Hidalgo,2006QL39,andP/SidingSpring.Twoofthemareconsistent with past research; P/Siding Spring is a known comet and 944 Hidalgo is a most-likely comet candidate in asteroid populations. Since they all have stable orbits in nowadays although they have unstable orbit in the past, we could conclude that they may be not active comets but dormant or extinct comets.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.72.2-72.2
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• 2018

The Opposition Effect (OE) is an enhancement of the brightness of a reflecting light as the phase angle (the Sun-target-observer angle) approaches zero. The mechanisms have been studied both theoretically and experimentally and nowadays recognized that there are two major mechanisms, namely, coherent backscattering OE (CBOE) and shadow hiding OE (SHOE). From data analyses of an S-type asteroid Itokawa taken with the Hayabusa spacecraft onboard camera, it is suggested that the CBOE would be dominant at phase angle smaller than ~ 1.4 deg, while SHOE dominates at larger phase angles (M. Lee & M. Ishiguro, under review). The study on the physical parameters which affect the OE, such as size and composition, will lead us to find a way to disentangle each of them from observation. The experiments in lab, however, faces two major difficulties: (a) the detector blocks the incident light if phase angle is nearly zero and (b) incident and emission angles must be controlled with high angular resolution to prevent blurring of OEs at different phase angles in one measurement. In this presentation, we introduce a new apparatus which has been installed at Seoul National University to investigate the OE in our lab, and summarize the initial results. It will be a valuable starting point to establish infrastructure in Korea, and will shed light on the investigation of OE physics using laboratory simulants.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.73.1-73.1
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• 2018

We investigated shock history of three achondrite meteorites: NWA 3117, a howardite from asteroid Vesta, NWA 2727, a breccia from the Moon, and NWA 856, a shergottite from Mars. Shock histories were evaluated from deformation of plagioclase feldspars. Feldspar grains were classified based on observations in cross-polarized light as undulatory, mosaic, mosaic-recrystallized or maskelynite. This sequence represents increasing deformation of original feldspar crystals. Undulatory crystals have wavy extinction, mosaic crystals have patchy extinction, and mosaic-recrystallized grains appear as if they were originally coarse-grained and have recrystallized to mosaics of small equant crystals. Maskelynite grains are isotropic, indicating transformation to glass. Based on feldspar deformation, the degrees of impact processing are NWA 856 > NWA 3117 > NWA 2727. The high deformation of NWA 856 is expected because this sample is from Mars, which is a large parent body and requires a powerful impact to accelerate a rock to escape velocity. In contrast, the parent body of NWA 3117 (Vesta) is smaller than that of NWA 2727 (the Moon), yet NWA 3117 appears more highly deformed than NWA 2727. One possible explanation is that NWA 2727 is from a relatively young part of the Moon, which has not been exposed to impacts as long as the surface of Vesta.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.211-219
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• 2016

Korea's lunar exploration project includes the launching of an orbiter, a lander (including a rover), and an experimental orbiter (referred to as a lunar pathfinder). Laser altimeters have played an important scientific role in lunar, planetary, and asteroid exploration missions since their first use in 1971 onboard the Apollo 15 mission to the Moon. In this study, a laser altimeter was proposed as a scientific instrument for the Korean lunar orbiter, which will be launched by 2020, to study the global topography of the surface of the Moon and its gravitational field and to support other payloads such as a terrain mapping camera or spectral imager. This study presents the baseline design and performance model for the proposed laser altimeter. Additionally, the study discusses the expected performance based on numerical simulation results. The simulation results indicate that the design of system parameters satisfies performance requirements with respect to detection probability and range error even under unfavorable conditions.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2001

Beagle is one of the most popular laboratory animal in a dog. We investigated the incidence of spontaneous ophthalmic disease in Beagles in order to make basic data for quality control of Beagles in Korea. We surveyed 389 beagles from 3 different farms. The average prevalence rate of ophthalmic diseases was 19.3%. The prevalence rate of cataracts was higher than any other ophthalmic diseases, 7.5% and then in order of corneal scar(2.1%), retinal hemorrhage(1.5%), post-inflammatory retinal change(1.5%), cherry eye(1.0%), distichiasis(0.8%), entropion(0.8%), hypoplastic optic disc(0.8%), conjunctivitis(0.5%), retinal dysplasia(0.5%), asteroid hyalosis(0.3%), congenital eye anomaly(0.3%), corneal lipidosis(0.3%), conjunctival hemorrhage(0.3%), lens capsule pigmentation(0.3%), persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous (0.3%), posterior synechia(0.3%), eyelid tumor(0.3%) and uveal cyst(0.3%) were diagnosed. There was a slight difference between male(24.8%) and female(17.4%) in prevalence rate of ophthalmic disease. The incidence of spontaneous ophthalmic disease was increased with age. These data would be useful for using Beagles as laboratory animals and standard reference for quality control of dogs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.62.2-62.2
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• 2013

It is considered that comets near the ecliptic plane have been injected into inner solar system from Kuiper-belt. Some of them are still active while others are dormant with no detectable tails and comae. These dormant comets have eccentric and/or inclined orbits, which are parameterized by Tisserand parameter TJ<3. In addition, dormant comets can be differentiated from asteroids based on the albedo, because they have low albedo (the geometrical albedos pv<0.1). The conditions of TJ<3 and pv<0.1 have been used as a criteria to discriminate dormant comets from asteroids. However, we must be more careful because there are 'contaminations' from the outer region, i.e. Jovian Trojans (5.05

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.56.1-56.1
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• 2016

Surface mineralogy of asteroids are inferred from photometric and spectroscopic observations with the wide range of wavelengths spanning from far-ultraviolet to mid-infrared. We classify mineralogy of those objects based on their spectral absorption features and spectral slopes. Based on overall spectral shapes, mineralogical classes are divided into three broad complexes; silicates (S), carbonaceous (C) and Vestoids (V), and the end-members that do not fit within the S, C and V broad-complexes. Each of them is subdivided into individual classes. Spectral classification of asteroidal objects has been simply represented by a combination of photometric colors. For a decade, photometric data of asteroids have been grouped and classified according to their SDSS colors converted from the spectral taxonomy. However, systematic studies for asteroid taxonomy based on Johnson-Cousins filters is few, and were conducted only with a small number of objects. In this paper, we present our preliminary results for taxonomic classification of Main Belt asteroids based on KMTNet Johnson-Cousins photometric color system.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 2021

Apophis is a near-Earth object with a diameter of approximately 340 m, which will come closer to the Earth than a geostationary orbit in 2029, offering a unique opportunity for characterizing the object during the upcoming encounter. Therefore, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute has a plan to propose a space mission to explore the Apophis asteroid using scientific instruments such as a laser altimeter. In this study, we evaluate the performance metrics of a laser altimeter using a pseudorandom noise modulation technique for the Apophis mission, in terms of detection probability and ranging accuracy. The closed-form expression of detection probability is provided using the cross correlation between the received pulse trains and pseudo-random binary sequence. And the new ranging accuracy model using Gaussian error propagation is also derived by considering the sampling rate. The operation range is significantly limited by thermal noise rather than background noise, owing to not only the low power laser but also the avalanche photodiode in the analog mode operation. However, it is demonstrated from the numerical simulation that the laser altimeter can achieve the ranging performance required for a proximity operation mode, which employs commercially available components onboard CubeSat-scale satellites for optical communications.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.63.2-63.2
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• 2019

Eight hundred thousand asteroids in the solar system have been identified so far under extensive sky surveys. Kilometer to sub-km sized asteroids, however, are still waiting for discovery, and their size and orbital distribution will provide a better understanding of the collisional and dynamical evolution of the solar system. In order to study the number of asteroids which is detectable with 1.6 m telescope and their orbital distribution, we conducted a small observation campaign as a part of Deep Ecliptic Patrol of the Southern Sky (DEEP-South) project, which is an asteroid survey in the southern hemisphere with Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet). We observed the ecliptic plane near opposition ($2^{\circ}{\times}2^{\circ}$ field of view centering on ${\alpha}=22h40m31s$, ${\delta}=-08^{\circ}22^{\prime}58^{{\prime}{\prime}}$) in August 2018, and identified 464 moving objects by visual inspection. As a result, 266 of 464 moving objects turn out to be previously unknown asteroids, and their signal to noise ratio is below two on numerous occasions. Most of the newly detected objects are main belt asteroids (MBAs), while three Hildas, one Jupiter trojan, and two Hungarias are also identified. In this meeting, we report the differences in the orbital distributions between the previously known asteroids and newly discovered ones using statistical methods. We also talk about the observational bias of this survey and suggest future works.