• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.321-326
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• 2017

We analyzed spectral data of the astrophysical diffuse emission obtained with the low-resolution spectroscopy mode on the AKARI InfraRed Camera (IRC) in the $1.8-5.3{\mu}m$ wavelength region. Advanced reduction methods specialized for slit spectroscopy of diffuse sky spectra have been developed, and a catalog of 278 spectra of the diffuse sky covering a wide range of Galactic and ecliptic latitudes was constructed. Using this catalog, two other major foreground components, the zodiacal light (ZL) and the diffuse Galactic light (DGL), were separated and subtracted by taking correlations with ZL brightness estimated by the DIRBE ZL model and with the $100{\mu}m$ dust thermal emission, respectively. The isotropic emission was interpreted as the extragalactic background light (EBL), which shows significant excess over the integrated light of galaxies at <$4{\mu}m$.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.22.2-22.2
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• 2004

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.99.2-99.2
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• 2007

• 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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.62.2-62.2
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• 2019

The ADF-S (AKARI Deep Field - South) toward South Ecliptic Pole is one of the deep survey fields designed for the study of Extragalactic Background Light (EBL). The deep extragalactic survey was initiated by AKARI far-infrared deep observations. Other space missions (e.g., Euclid, NISS, SPHEREx) will perform the deep observations in the ADF-S. Based upon the recent optical survey with KMTNet, we can identify the optical counterparts for dusty star-forming galaxies such as ULIRG, DOG, SMG. Among them, the Dust-Obscured Galaxies (hereafter DOGs with f(24um)/f(R) > 1,000) in the heavily obscured system are expected to play an important role in the formation of most massive galaxies. We have newly discovered ~100 DOGs in ~12 sq. deg. of the ADF-S from our optical survey with KMTNet. We also confirmed that some of DOGs host the most luminous AGN for their black hole masses through the near-infrared spectroscopic follow-ups. Here, we report the properties of high-z hyperluminous DOGs in the ADF-S.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.48.2-48.2
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• 2019

Light from universe is absorbed, scattered, and re-released by interstellar dust before it reaches us. Therefore, accurate correction of the observed light requires not only spatial distribution of interstellar dust, but also information on absorption and scattering for each wavelength. Far-ultraviolet (FUV) light is mainly produced by bright, young O-type and some B-type stars, but it is also observed in interstellar space without these stars. Called FUV Galactic light (DGL), these lights are mostly known as starlight scattered by interstellar dust. With the recent release of GAIA DR2, not only accurate distance information of stars in our Galaxy, but also accurate three-dimensional distribution maps of interstellar dust of our Galaxy were produced. Based on this, we performed 3-dimensional Monte Carlo dust scattering radiative transfer simulations for FUV light to obtain dust scattered FUV images and compared them with the observed FUV image obtained by FIMS and GALEX. From this, we find the scattering properties of interstellar dust in our Galaxy and suggest the intensity of extragalactic background light. These results are expected to aid in the study of chemical composition, size distribution, shape, and alignment of interstellar dust in our Galaxy.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.353-356
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• 2012

We present new constraints on the cosmic optical background (COB) obtained from an analysis of the Pioneer 10/11 Imaging Photopolarimeter (IPP) data. After careful examination of the data quality, the usable measurements free from the zodiacal light are integrated into sky maps at the blue (${\sim}0.44{\mu}m$) and red (${\sim}0.64{\mu}m$) bands. Accurate starlight subtraction was achieved by referring to all-sky star catalogs and a Galactic stellar population synthesis model down to 32.0 mag. We find that the residual light is separated into two components: one component shows a clear correlation with the thermal $100{\mu}m$ brightness, whilst the other shows a constant level in the lowest $100{\mu}m$ brightness region. The presence of the second component is significant after all the uncertainties and possible residual light in the Galaxy are taken into account, thus it most likely has an extragalactic origin (i.e., the COB). The derived COB brightness is ($(1.8{\pm}0.9){\times}10^{-9}$ and $(1.2{\pm}0.9){\times}10^{-9}\;erg\;s^{-1}\;cm^{-2}\;sr^{-1}\;{\AA}^{-1}$ in the blue and red spectral regions, respectively, or $7.9{\pm}4.0$ and $7.7{\pm}5.8\;nW\;m^{-2}\;sr^{-1}$. Based on a comparison with the integrated brightness of galaxies, we conclude that the bulk of the COB is comprised of normal galaxies which have already been resolved by the current deepest observations. There seems to be little room for contributions from other populations including "first stars" at these wavelengths. On the other hand, the first component of the IPP residual light represents the diffuse Galactic light (DGL)-scattered starlight by the interstellar dust. We derive the mean DGL-to-$100{\mu}m$ brightness ratios of $2.1{\times}10^{-3}$ and $4.6{\times}10^{-3}$ at the two bands, which are roughly consistent with previous observations toward denser dust regions. Extended red emission in the diffuse interstellar medium is also confirmed.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.57.3-58
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• 2021

We performed three-dimensional Monte Carlo dust scattering radiative transfer simulations for FUV light to obtain dust scattered FUV images and compared them with the observed FUV image obtained by FIMS/SPEAR and GALEX. From this, we find the scattering properties of interstellar dust in our Galaxy and suggest the intensity of extragalactic background light (EBL) at FUV wavelength. The best-fit values of the scattering properties of interstellar dust are albedo = 0.38^-0.04_+0.04, g-factor = 0.55^-0.15_+0.10, and EBL = 138^-23₊₂₁ CU for the allsky which are consistent well with the Milky Way dust model of Draine and direct measurements of Gardner et al., respectively. At the high Galactic latitude of |b|>10°, the observation is well fitted with the model of lower albedo = 0.35^-0.04_+0.06 and g-factor = 0.50^-0.20_+0.15. On the contrary, the scattering properties of interstellar dust show higher albedo = 0.43^-0.02_+0.02 and g-factor = 0.65^-0.15_+0.05 near the Galactic plane of |b|<10°. In the present simulation, recent three-dimensional distribution maps of interstellar dust in our Galaxy, stellar distances in the catalog of GAIA DR2, and FUV fluxes and/or spectral types in the TD-1 and Hipparcos star catalogs were used.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2015

First light galaxies have predictable linear clustering, and are expected to produce fluctuations with a characteristic spatial power spectrum, which peaks at an angular scale of ~ 10 arcminutes and in the $1-2{\mu}m$ spectral regions. The Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment 2 (CIBER2) is a dedicated sounding rocket mission for measuring the fluctuations in the extragalactic infrared background light, following up the previous successful measurements of CIBER1. With a 28.5 cm telescope accompanied with three arms of camera barrels and a dual broadband filter on each H2RG (${\lambda}_c=2.5{\mu}m$) array, CIBER2 can measure 6 bands of wide field ($1.1{\times}2.2$ degrees) up to 3 AB magnitudes deeper than CIBER1. This project is leaded by California Institute of Technology/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, collaborating internationally with Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Japan, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Korea Basic Science Institute, and Seoul National University. The Korean team is in charge of 1) one H2RG scientific array, 2) ground station hardware and software, 3) telescope lenses, and 4) flight and test bed electronics fabrication. In this paper, we describe the detailed activities of the Korean participation as well as the current status of the CIBER2 project.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.36.2-36.2
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• 2013

The SPICA (SPace Infrared Telescope for Cosmology & Astrophysics) project is a next-generation infrared space telescope optimized for mid- and far-infrared observation with a cryogenically cooled 3m-class telescope. The focal plane instruments onboard SPICA will enable us to resolve many astronomical key issues from the formation and evolution of galaxies to the planetary formation. The FPC-S (Focal Plane Camera - Sciecne) is a near-infrared instrument proposed by Korea as an international collaboration. Owing to the capability of both low-resolution imaging spectroscopy and wide-band imaging with a field of view of $5^{\prime}{\times}5^{\prime}$, it has large throughput as well as high sensitivity for diffuse light compared with JWST. In order to strengthen advantages of the FPC-S, we propose the studies of probing population III stars by the measurement of cosmic near-infrared background radiation and the star formation history at high redshift by the discoveries of active star-forming galaxies. In addition to the major scientific targets, to survey large area opens a new parameter space to investigate the deep Universe. The good survey capability in the parallel imaging mode allows us to study the rare, bright objects such as quasars, bright star-forming galaxies in the early Universe as a way to understand the formation of the first objects in the Universe, and ultra-cool brown dwarfs. Observations in the warm mission will give us a unique chance to detect high-z supernovae, ices in young stellar objects (YSOs) even with low mass, the $3.3{\mu}$ feature of shocked circumstance in supernova remnants. Here, we report the current status of SPICA/FPC project and its extragalactic sciences.