• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.58.1-58.1
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• 2017

The NISS (Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer for Star formation history) is the near-infrared spectro-photometric instrument optimized to the first Next Generation of small satellite (NEXTSat-1). The off-axis optics was developed to cover a wide field of view with 2 deg. ${\times}$ 2 deg. as well as a wide wavelength range from 0.95 to $2.5{\mu}m$. Considering the simple alignment scheme, afocal system was adapted in the optical components. The mechanical structures were tested under the space environment. We have obtained the accurate calibration data using our test facilities under the operational condition. After the final integration of flight model into the satellite, the communication with the satellite and the functional test were passed. The NISS will be launched in early 2018. During around 2-year operation, the spectro-photometric survey covering more than 100 square degree will be performed. To achieve the major scientific objectives for the study of the cosmic star formation in local and distant universe, the main observational targets will be nearby galaxies, galaxy clusters, star-forming regions and low background regions. Here, we report the final performance of the flight model of the NISS.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.37.2-37.2
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• 2019

Recent investigations of the double red clump in the color-magnitude diagram of the Milky Way bulge cast serious doubts on the structure and formation origin of the outer bulge. Unlike previous interpretation based on an X-shaped bulge, stellar evolution models and CN-band observations have suggested that this feature is another manifestation of the multiple stellar population phenomenon observed in globular clusters (GCs). This new scenario requires a significant fraction of the outer bulge stars with chemical patterns uniquely observed in GCs. Here we show from homogeneous high-quality spectroscopic data that the red giant branch stars in the outer bulge ($>5.5^{\circ}$ from the Galactic center) are clearly divided into two groups according to Na abundance in the [Na/Fe] - [Fe/H] plane. The Na-rich stars are also enhanced in Al, while the differences in O and Mg are not observed between the two Na groups. The population ratio and the Na and Al differences between the two groups are also comparable with those observed in metal-rich GCs. Since these chemical patterns and characteristics are only explained by stars originated in GCs, this is compelling evidence that the outer bulge was mostly assembled from disrupted proto-GCs in the early history of the Milky Way. We will also discuss the implications of this result on the formation of the early-type galaxies in general.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.46.1-46.1
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• 2015

M85 is a merger remnant galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, showing complex merging features. Globular clusters in M85 are a good tracer of its merging history. To investigate globular cluster system of M85, we obtain deep and wide field images of M85 in ugi filters covering one square degree using CFHT/MegaCam. We discover about 1,000 globular cluster candidates in these images. The color distribution of the globular cluster candidates within r < 5' from M85 does not show a clear bimodality and blue globular cluster candidates are more than red ones. These features are different from those in massive early-type galaxies. The spatial distribution of the globular cluster candidates is elongated along the faint stellar light of M85. We also investigate the spatial distribution of sub-populations of the globular cluster candidates with different color and brightness and estimate their ages based on their color. We discuss these results in relation with the formation history of M85.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1999

The archival long-slit spectra, covering the wavelength range 4050 ~ 5150 $\AA$, have been used to investigate the radial behavior of absorption line fea-tures (G4300, Fe4383, Ca4455, Fe4531, and $H{\beta}$) of an elliptical galaxy NGC 5846A. The heliocentric recession velocity of NGC 5846 has been derived as $1949{\pm}87\;kms^{-1}$. Fe absorption lines of NGC 5846A show significant radial gradients with the mean slope of $\Delta/Delta(r")=-0.863\pm0.202$. There is also a significant radial gradient of G band with a slope of $-1.109{\pm}0.098$. On the other hand, no radial gradients has been detected on the Ca4455 and $H{\beta}$ absorptions of NGC 5846A. A metallicity gradient, which is derived from the Fe line gradients, is similar to the abundance gradient predicted by Larson's (1975) dissipative models for the formation of elliptical galaxies. We also note that a galaxy-galaxy interaction could affect the line gradients of NGC 5864A.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.62.1-62.1
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• 2014

Metallicity distribution of globular clusters (GCs) provides an important clue for star formation history of their host galaxy. With an assumption that GCs are generally old, GC colors have been used as a proxy of GC metallicities. Bimodal GC color distributions observed in most large galaxies have, for decades, been interpreted as bimodal metallicity distributions, indicating the presence of two populations within a galaxy. However, the conventional view has been challenged by a new theory that non-linear GC color-metallicity relations (CMRs) can cause a bimodal color distribution even from a single-peaked metallicity distribution. Using the photometric and spectroscopic data of NGC 5128 GCs in combination with stellar population simulation models, we examine the effect of non-linearity in GC CMRs on the transformation of GC color distributions into metallicity distributions. Although, in some colors, offsets are present between observations and models in the CMRs, their overall shape agrees well for various colors. After the offsets are corrected, the observed spectroscopic metallicity distribution is well reproduced via modeled CMRs from various color distributions having different morphologies. On the other hand, the linearly converted metallicity distributions from GC colors show a significant discrepancy with the observed spectroscopic metallicity distribution. We discuss the implications of our results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.61.2-61.2
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• 2016

Nuclear rings at centers of barred galaxies exhibit strong star formation activities. They are thought to undergo gravitational instability when sufficiently massive. We approximate them as rigidly-rotating isothermal objects and investigate their gravitational instability. Using a self-consistent eld method, we first construct their equilibrium sequences specified by two parameters: ${\alpha}$ corresponding to the thermal energy relative to gravitational potential energy, and $R_B$ measuring the ellipticity or ring thickness. The density distributions in the meridional plane are steeper for smaller ${\alpha}$, and well approximated by those of infinite cylinders for slender rings. We also calculate the dispersion relations of nonaxisymmetric modes in rigidly-rotating slender rings with angular frequency ${\Omega}$ and central density ${\rho}_c$. Rings with smaller are found more unstable with a larger unstable range of the azimuthal mode number. The instability is completely suppressed by rotation when ${\Omega}$ exceeds the critical value. The critical angular frequency is found to be almost constant at $0.7(G{\rho}_c)^{1/2}$ for ${\alpha}$ > 0.01 and increases rapidly for smaller ${\alpha}$. We apply our results to a sample of observed star-forming rings and confirm that rings without a noticeable azimuthal age gradient of young star clusters are indeed gravitationally unstable.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.34.3-35
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• 2016

Ram pressure stripping of early-type galaxies has been largely neglected until now because of their gas poor nature. MUSE IFU observation vividly reveal the presence of star-forming blobs and ionised gas tails, around an early-type galaxy in Abell 2670. The galaxy was identified as a post-merger galaxy with disturbed faint features, in MOSAIC 2 deep optical images. The imaging also revealed a series of star-forming blobs, situated in the direction facing away from the cluster centre. Thanks to the revolutionary wide field-of-view of the MUSE, combined with 8.2-m VLT (UT-4) at Cerro Paranal, we could simultaneously obtain IFU spectra of the blobs, as well as the galaxy. The MUSE spectra clearly confirms that the star-forming blobs are associated with the early-type galaxy. Moreover, MUSE reveals long ionised-gas tails, emanating from the galaxy. The quantity of gas indicates a gas rich progenitor has merged with the early-type galaxy. However the direction of the tails and blobs, and the blob morphology, appears to indicate that strong ram-pressure stripping may have stripped out gas brought in by the merger. We will present kinematic structure of the whole system (the galaxy, star-forming blobs, and gas tails), as well as the star formation history of the system, supporting a scenario where a recent galaxy merger is subjected to cluster environmental mechanisms.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.38.2-38.2
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• 2012

We use two-dimensional high-resolution MHD simulations to investigate the effects of magnetic fields on the formation and evolution of such substructures as well as on the mass inflow rates to the galaxy center. We find that there exists an outermost x1-orbit relative to which gaseous responses to an imposed stellar bar potential are completely different between inside and outside. Inside this orbit, gas is shocked into dust lanes and infalls to form a nuclear ring. Magnetic fields are compressed in dust lanes, reducing their peak density. Magnetic stress removes further angular momentum of the gas at the shocks and leads to a smaller and more centrally distributed ring, resulting in the mass inflow rates larger, by more than two orders of magnitude, than in the unmagnetized counterparts. Outside the outermost x1-orbit, on the other hand, an MHD dynamo operates near the corotation and bar-end regions, efficiently amplifying magnetic fields. The amplified fields shape into trailing magnetic arms with strong fields and low density. The base of the magnetic arms have a thin layer in which magnetic fields with opposite polarity reconnect via a tearing-mode instability. This produces numerous magnetic islands with large density which propagate along the arms to turn the outer disk into a highly chaotic state.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.157-160
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• 2007

I present a model to explain the mass segregation and shallow mass functions observed in the central parts of starburst stellar clusters. The model assumes that the initial pre-stellar cores mass function resulting from the turbulent fragmentation of the proto-cluster cloud is significantly altered by the cores coalescence before they collapse to form stars. With appropriate, yet realistic parameters, this model based on the competition between cores coalescence and collapse reproduces the mass spectra of the well studied Arches cluster. Namely, the slopes at the intermediate and high mass ends, as well as the peculiar bump observed at $6M_{\bigodot}$. This coalescence-collapse process occurs on a short timescale of the order of the free fall time of the proto-cluster cloud (i.e., a few $10^4$ years), suggesting that mass segregation in Arches and similar clusters is primordial. The best fitting model implies the total mass of the Arches cluster is $1.45{\times}10^5M_{\bigodot}$, which is slightly higher than the often quoted, but completeness affected, observational value of a few $10^4M_{\bigodot}$. The model implies a star formation efficiency of ${\sim}30$ percent which implies that the Arches cluster is likely to a gravitationally bound system.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.44-44
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• 2010

We study the effect of massive neutrinos on the evolution of the early mini-halos ($M\sim10^6h^{-1}M{\odot}at$ z~20) where the first stars may have formed. In the framework of the extended Press-Schechter formalism, we evaluate analytically the rates of merging of the mini-halos into zero-dimensional larger halos and one-dimensional mini-filaments. It is shown that the halo-to-filament merging rate increases with the neutrino mass fraction $f_v$ while the halo-to-halo merging rate decreases. Comparing the cases of $f_v$=0 and 0.10, the halo-to-filament merging rate for $f_v$=0.10 is 3 times larger than the other. The distribution of the epochs of the longest-axis collapse of these first filaments is also derived and found to reach a sharp maximum at z~8-9. Once the first mini-filaments form, they would provide bridges along which the matter and gas more rapidly accrete onto the constituent halos, causing the early formation of the first galaxies and rapid growth of their central blackholes. Furthermore, the longest axis collapse of these first mini-filaments would spur the supermassive blackholes to power the ultra-luminous high-z quasars.