• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.82.2-82.2
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• 2017

Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) is one of powerful tools for investigating primordial objects in the inner solar system in that it covers a large area of the sky ($2{\times}2$ degree2) with a high observational cadence. The Deep Ecliptic Patrol of the Southern sky (DEEP-South) survey has been scanning the southern sky using KMTNet for non-bulge time (45 full nights per year) [1] since 2015 for examining color, albedo, rotation, and shape of the solar system bodies. Since 2017 January, we have launched a new collaborative group between Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and Seoul National University (SNU) with support from KASI to reinforce mutual collaboration among these institutes and further to enhance human resources development by utilizing the KMTNet/DEEP-South data. In particular, we focus on the detection of comets and asteroids spontaneously scanned in the DEEP-South for (1) investigating the secular changes in comet's activities and (2) analyzing precovery and recovery images of objects in the NASA's NEOWISE survey region. In this presentation, we will describe our scientific objectives and current status on using KMTNet data, which includes updating the accuracy of the world coordinate system (WCS) information, finding algorithm of solar system bodies in the image, and doing non-sidereal photometry.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.48.3-49
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• 2017

Interplanetary space of the solar system contains a large number of dust particles, referred to as Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) cloud complex. They are observable through meteors and zodiacal lights. The relative contribution of possible sources to the IDPs cloud complex was an controversial topic, however, recent research (Yang & Ishiguro, 2015 and references therein) suggested a dominance of cometary origin. In this study, we numerically investigated the orbital evolution of cometary dust particles, with special concerns on different evolutionary tracks and its consequences according to initial orbits, size and particle shape. The effect of dust particle density and initial size-frequency distribution (SFD) were not decisive in total cloud complex mass and mass supply rate, when these physical quantities are confined by observed zodiacal light brightness and dust particle SFD at 1 au. We noticed that, if we assume the existence of fluffy aggregates discovered in the Earth's stratosphere and the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the required mass supply rate decreases significantly. We also found out that close encounters with planets (mostly Jupiter) are the dominating factor of the orbital evolution of dust particles, as the result, the lifetime of cometary dust particles are shorter than Poynting-Robertson lifetime (around 250 thousand years). As another consequence of severe close encounters, only a small fraction of cometary dust particles can be transferred into the orbit < 1 au. This effect is significant for large size particles of ${\beta}$ < 0.01. The exceptional cases are dust particles ejected from 2P/Encke and active asteroids. Because they rarely encounter with Jupiter, most dust particles ejected from those objects are governed by Poynting-Robertson effect and well transferred into the orbits of small semimajor axis. In consideration of the above effects, we directly estimated probability of mutual collisions between dust particles and concluded that mutual collisions in the IDPs cloud complex is mostly ignorable, except for the case of large sized particles from active asteroids.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.55.1-55.1
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• 2016

Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) population has attracted keen attention not only from the scientific community but from the general public ever since their terrestrial impact risk achieved wide recognition. Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), the subset of NEAs, recently became the center of interest of planetary defense folks and mining industry due to their proximity to, and the potential effects on planet Earth. However, we have long been ignorant about either the physical properties or dynamical source regions of individual objects. For instance, their rotational periods are only known for five percent of the total population (The NEA Database of DLR, updated on Feb 2016). The primary scientific objective of DEEP-South (DEep Ecliptic Patrol of the Southern sky) is to physically characterize 70 percent of km-class PHAs until 2019. In order to achieve this goal, we implemented an observation mode so-called "OC (Opposition Census)" targeting objects around opposition. OC observations were conducted during the period between Feb 2015 and Mar 2016, at CTIO in early periods, and at three KMTNet stations (CTIO, SSO and SAAO) since late July 2015, excluding the "bulge season" when the telescope time is exclusively used for exoplanet search. We present the preliminary lightcurves of 66 PHAs and 59 NEAs that we obtained during the OC runs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.45.1-45.1
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• 2021

The polarization degree as a function of phase angle (the Sun-target-observer's angle), so-called the polarimetric phase curves (PPC), have provided priceless information on asteroids' albedos since B. Lyot (1929). Succeeding experimental works in 1970s have confirmed the Umow law: There is a universal and strong correlation between the albedo and the PPC slope (slope of the tangential line at the zero of the PPC at phase angle ~ 20 degrees). Experiments in 1990s (ref [1]), on the other hand, have demonstrated that the negative branch of PPC is dependent on the size parameter (X ~ π * particle-size / wavelength), especially when X <~5. The change in particle size changed the minimum polarization degree, location of the minimum, and the width of the negative branch (called the inversion angle). From polarimetry[2] and spectroscopy[3], large asteroids are expected to be covered with fine (<~ 10 ㎛ size) particles due to the gravity. The size parameters are X ~ 30 at the optical wavelength (λ ~ 0.5 ㎛) and X ~ 10 in near-infrared (J, H, Ks bands; λ ~ 1.2-2.2 ㎛), if the representative particle size of 5 ㎛ is considered. Accordingly, the near-infrared polarimetry has a great potential to validate the idea in ref[1]. We conducted near-infrared photopolarimetry of the large asteroid (4) Vesta using the Nishiharima Infrared Camera (NIC) at Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory (NHAO). NIC allows simultaneous polarimetric measurements in J, H, and Ks bands, and thus the change of PPC is obtained for three different size parameters. As a result, we found a signature of the change in the negative branch in the PPC of asteroid (4) Vesta. We will introduce our observation and the results and give an interpretation of the regolith on Vesta.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2013

Human spaceflight experience in extra-vehicular activity (EVA) is limited to two regimes: the micro-gravity environment of Earth orbit, and the lunar surface environment at one-sixth of Earth's gravity. Future human missions to low-gravity bodies, including asteroids, comets, and the moons of Mars, will require EVA techniques that are beyond the current experience base. In order to develop robust approaches for exploring these small bodies, the dynamics associated with human exploration on low-gravity surface must be characterized. This paper examines the translational and rotational motion of an astronaut on the surface of a small body, and it is shown that the low-gravity environment will pose challenges to the surface mobility of an astronaut, unless new tools and EVA techniques are developed. Possibilities for addressing these challenges are explored, and utilization of the International Space Station to test operational concepts and hardware in preparation for a low-gravity surface EVA is discussed.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.59.3-59.3
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• 2015

National Youth Space Center will complete installation of the NYSC 1m Telescope in this year. Before completion of the telescope, we present the software design of JTCS, and the preliminary result of tracking performance by JTCS and mount of the telescope. JTCS currently uses commercial software of the Sky X, for the real-time coordinates of various objects, such as asteroids, comets, and even satellites. In order to guarantee flexibility in CCD detectors, the MaxIm DL software was adopted and JTCS provides auto-guiding and scheduled image-taking with MaxIm DL. We are now stabilizing the telescope mount and JTCS with long-exposure tests, and gathering the preliminary data of tracking performance.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.108-118
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• 2014

Micronesia is an island nation located north of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean. A survey was conducted on Chuuk, which is one of the four main islands of Micronesia, from 11-25 Nov 2012. Echinoderms collected at one intertidal area as well as at 16 SCUBA diving points of 10-40 m depths in the subtidal zone were identified based on morphological characteristics. In total, 35 species from 165 individuals were identified: two crinoids, eight asteroids, four ophiuroids, seven echinoids, and 14 holothuroids. Among them, one asteroid, one ophiuroid, one echinoid, and two holothuroids were newly recorded from Micronesia.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.98.1-98.1
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• 2012

The Hayabusa mission successfully rendezvoused with its target asteroid 25143 Itokawa in 2005 and brought the asteroidal sample to the Earth in 2009. This mission enabled to connect the S-type asteroids to ordinary chondrites, the counterpart meteorites which exist in near Earth orbit. Recent finding of a fragment from 25143 Itokawa [1] suggested that the asteroid experienced an impact after the injection to the near-Earth orbit. In this presentation, we investigated the evidence of the recent impact on 25143 Itokawa using the onboard camera, AMICA. AMICA took more than 1400 images of Itokawa during the rendezvous phase. It is reported that AMICA images are highly contaminated by lights scattered inside the optics in the longer wavelength. We developed a technique to subtract the scattered light by determining the point spread functions for all available channels. As the result, we first succeeded in the determination of the surface spectra in all available bands. We consider a most fresh-looking compact crater, Kamoi, is a possible impact site.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.49.2-49.2
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• 2017

With support from the K-GMT science program (PID: GN-2016B-Q-14), we conducted observations of active asteroid 354P/LINEAR (2010 A2) when it made its closest approach to Earth (i.e., the geocentric distance of 1.06 au on 2017 January 27-28). Taking advantage of the best observing geometry since the discovery, we obtained the first evidence for the rotational status of the largest fragment (~120 m in diameter), which was slowly rotating, that is, the rotational period of 11.36 hours. In addition, we succeed in direct imaging of 10 sub-fragments (~20 m in diameter or larger). Based on these new observational results, we conjecture that this active asteroid was created as a result of catastrophic collision among unknown asteroids. The details of this work are given in Astrophysical Journal Letters, 842, L23.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.48.2-48.2
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• 2018

SPHEREx is expected to provide us with the opportunity of unbiased sampling of small Solar System objects along with near-infrared ($0.75-5.0{\mu}m$) spectroscopic (R ~ 41) information. The estimated numbers of detections are tens of thousands for asteroids, thousands for Trojans, hundreds for comets, and several for Kuiper Belt Objects, Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects. Wide spectral range covering many bands from carbon-bearing molecules and ices will enable us to systematically survey the volatile materials throughout the Solar System. SPHEREx will, for the first time, produce the near-infrared spectral map of the zodiacal light to pin-down the relative contributions of various populations of Solar System objects and interstellar dust to the dust grains in the interplanetary space. The study of the zodiacal light is also important to remove the foreground for the EBL (extragalactic background light) study, one of the main topics of the mission.