• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.81.1-81.1
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• 2021

Stellar kinematics is a useful tool to understand the formation and evolution of young stellar systems. Here, we present a kinematic study of the HII region, NGC 821, using the Gaia Early Data Release 3. NGC 281 contains the open cluster IC 1590. This cluster has a core and a low-stellar density halo. We detect a pattern of cluster expansion from the Gaia proper motion vectors. Most stars radially escaping from the cluster are distributed in the halo. We measure the 1-dimensional velocity dispersion of stars in the core. The velocity dispersion (1 km/s) is comparable to the expected virial velocity dispersion of this cluster, and therefore the core is at a virial state. The core has an initial mass function shallower than that of the halo, which is indicative of mass segregation. However, there is no significant correlation between stellar masses and tangential velocities. This result suggests that the mass segregation has a primordial origin. On the other hand, it has been believed that the formation of young stars in NGC 281 West was triggered by feedback from massive stars in IC 1590. We investigate the ages of stars in the two regions, but the age difference between the two regions is not comparable to the timescale of the passage of an ionization front. Also, the proper motion vectors of the NGC 281 West stars relative to IC 1590 do not show any systematic receding motion from the cluster. Our results suggest that stars in NGC 281 West might have been formed spontaneously. In conclusion, the formation of NGC 281 can be understood in the context of hierarchical star formation model.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.38.1-38.1
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• 2008

Tides caused by the Galactic gravitational field affect the current dynamical structure of globular clusters in the Galaxy. Indeed, the observed feature of tidal tails stretching beyond globular clusters' tidal radii provides a key information of interaction with the gravitational field of the Galaxy and kinematical orbit of the clusters, which can be an evidence of the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation and evolution. To find such a tidal feature, we have studied spatial density distribution of stars around five globular clusters in the Galactic halo and one cluster in the Galactic bulge, for which we have used wide-field deep photometric data of gri and JHK bands obtained from the MegaCam and WIRCam of the CFHT. Applying the statistical contrast filtering of field stars in the color-magnitude plane of detected stars around five halo clusters, we have found features of tidal tails for four clusters M53, M15, NGC 5053, and NGC 5466. The detected over-density tidal features are well aligned with the cluster's orbits and stretched into the direction of the Galactic center. Statistical analysis indicate that these tidal tails are believed to be cluster stars that have escaped due to the tidal effects to the clusters. A similar tidal feature to that of halo clusters is also detected for the bulge cluster NGC 6626, while the over-density feature seems to be extended into the Galactic plane rather than into the orbital direction and the Galactic center. Conclusively, our result adds further observational evidence of the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation and evolution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.50-50
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• 2014

We present a new catalog of galaxies in the wider region of the Virgo cluster, based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7. The Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog (EVCC) covers an area of 725 deg2 or 60.1 Mpc2. It is 5.2 times larger than the footprint of the classical Virgo Cluster Catalog (VCC) and reaches out to 3.5 times the virial radius of the Virgo cluster. We selected 1324 spectroscopically targeted galaxies with radial velocities less than 3000 km s-1. In addition, 265 galaxies that have been missed in the SDSS spectroscopic survey but have available redshifts in the NASA Extragalactic Database are also included. Our selection process secured a total of 1589 galaxies of which 676 galaxies are not included in the VCC. The certain and possible cluster members are defined by means of redshift comparison with a cluster infall model. We employed two independent and complementary galaxy classification schemes: the traditional morphological classification based on the visual inspection of optical images and a characterization of galaxies from their spectroscopic features. SDSS u, g, r, i, and z passband photometry of all EVCC galaxies was performed using Source Extractor. We compare the EVCC galaxies with the VCC in terms of morphology, spatial distribution, and luminosity function. The EVCC defines a comprehensive galaxy sample covering a wider range in galaxy density that is significantly different from the inner region of the Virgo cluster. It will be the foundation for forthcoming galaxy evolution studies in the extended Virgo cluster region, complementing ongoing and planned Virgo cluster surveys at various wavelengths.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.69.3-70
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• 2021

We present the chemical properties of star-forming dwarf galaxies (SFDGs) in five filamentary structures (Leo II A, Leo II B, Leo Minor, Canes Venatici, and Virgo III) around the Virgo cluster using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical spectroscopic data and Galaxy Evolution Explorer ultraviolet photometric data. We investigate the relationship between stellar mass, gas-phase metallicity, and specific star formation rate (sSFR) of SFDGs in the Virgo filaments in comparison to those in the Virgo cluster and field. We find that, at a given stellar mass, SFDGs in the Virgo filaments show lower metallicity and higher sSFR than those in the Virgo cluster on average. We observe that SFDGs in the Virgo III filament show enhanced metallicities and suppressed star formation activities comparable to those in the Virgo cluster, whereas SFDGs in the other four filaments exhibit similar properties to the field counterparts. Moreover, about half of the galaxies in the Virgo III filament are found to be morphologically transitional dwarf galaxies that are supposed to be on the way to transforming into quiescent dwarf early-type galaxies. Based on the analysis of the galaxy perturbation parameter, we propose that the local environment represented by the galaxy interactions might be responsible for the contrasting features in "chemical pre-processing" found in the Virgo filaments.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.67.4-68
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• 2021

In studying the dynamical evolution of galaxy clusters, one intriguing approach is to compare the spatial distributions of various components, such as the dark matter, the member galaxies, the gas, and the intracluster light (ICL; the diffuse light from stars, which are not bound any individual cluster galaxy). If we find a visible component whose spatial distribution coincides with the dark matter distribution, then we could draw a dark matter map without requiring laborious weak lensing analysis. Furthermore, if the component traces the dark matter distribution better for more relaxed galaxy cluster, we could use the similarity as a dynamical stage estimator of the galaxy cluster. We present a novel new methodology to quantify the similarity of two or more 2-dimensional spatial distributions. We apply the method to a sample of galaxy clusters at different dynamical stages simulated within N-cluster Run, which is an N-body simulation using the galaxy replacement technique. Among the various components (stellar particles, galaxies, ICL), the velocity defined ICL+ brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) component traces the dark matter best. Between the sample galaxy clusters, the relaxed clusters show stronger similarity of the spatial distribution between the dark matter and ICL+BCG than the dynamically young clusters.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.79.1-79.1
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• 2013

We present new integrated spectroscopy of 24 Galactic globular clusters, observed with the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma. Spectra have been extracted from one core radius for each cluster, achieving high wavelength resolution of FWHM ${\sim}2.0^{\circ}A$. In combination with two previous data sets from Puzia et al. 2002 and Schiavon et al. 2005, we construct the largest database of the Lick indices for total 53 Galactic globular clusters. The empirical metallicity.index relations are given for the 20 Lick indices for the use of deriving metallicities of remote, unresolved stellar systems.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.34.1-34.1
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• 2008

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.18.1-18.1
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• 2008

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.331-334
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• 2012

We investigate the role of galaxy environment in the evolution of individual galaxies through the AKARI observations of the merging galaxy cluster A2255. MIR diagnostics using N3-S11 colors are adopted to select star-forming galaxies and galaxies in transition between star-forming galaxies and quiescent galaxies. We do not find particular enhancement of star formation rates as a function of galaxy environment, reflected in cluster-centric distance and local surface density of galaxies. Instead, the locations of intermediate MIR-excess galaxies (-1.2 < N3 - S11 < 0.2) show that star-forming galaxies are transformed into passive galaxies in the substructures of A2255, where the local surface density of galaxies is relatively high.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2001

UBV RI and H$\alpha$ photometry has been performed for the open cluster NGC 6531. A total of 56 bright main sequence (MS) members were selected from their positions in photometric diagrams. We also classified 7 pre-main sequence (PMS) stars and 6 PMS candidates with Ha: emission from H$\alpha$ photometry. We determined a reddening of < E(B - V) >= 0.29 $\pm$ 0.03 and a distance modulus of Vo - Mv = 10.5 for the cluster. From the comparison of our photometric results to theoretical evolution models, we derived a MS turnoff age of 7.5 Myr and a PMS age spread of $\~$4 Myr. The IMF slope $\Gamma$, calculated in the mass range of 0.45 $\le$ log m $\le$ 1.35 is a steep value of $\Gamma$ = -1.8 $\pm$ 0.6.