• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.85.2-85.2
• /
• 2011

A new infrared spectro-polarimeter was installed in 2008 onto the Solar Flare Telescope of NAOJ in the Mitaka headquarters. The Solar Flare Telescope had been operated previously as a filter-based magnetograph and obtained vector magnetograms of active regions with the Fe I 630.3nm line during 1992 - 2005. The aim of this new instrument is to measure the distribution of magnetic helicity over the whole Sun and for an extended period with high magnetic sensitivity in the infrared wavelengths. This spectro-polarimter is able to obtain polarizations in both photospheric and chromospheric layers. In order to take full Stokes profiles, we observe Fe I 1564.8 nm and He I 1083.0 nm lines (with the neighboring photospheric Si line) for the photospheric and chromospheric magnetic field vectors, respectively. The infrared detector of this instrument is a $640{\times}512$-pixel InGaAs camera produced by a Belgian company Xenics. The frame rate of the camera is 90 frames/sec. The 640-pixel row of this camera is set along the spectrograph slit of the polarimeter. Since the slit only covers the solar hemisphere, a full disk map is obtained by raster scanning the solar disk twice. A magnetic map is made of about $1200{\times}1200$ pixels with a pixel size of 1.8 arcsec. It generally takes 1.5 hours to scan the whole Sun. Although some issues on the instrument calibration still remain, a few maps of the whole Sun at the two wavelengths are now taken daily. In this presentation, we will introduce the instrument and present some observational results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.126.1-126.1
• /
• 2011

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. Owing to unique capability of focal plane instruments onboard SPICA, it will enable us to resolve many astronomical key issues from the star-formation history of the universe to the planetary formation. The FPC (Focal Plane Camera) is a Korean-led near-infrared instrument as an international collaboration. Korean consortium for FPC proposed a key instrument responsible for a fine guiding (FPC-G). The back-up of FPC-G will make scientific observations as well. We have examined the legacy science programs for FPC and performed the feasibility study for the fine guiding system. Recently, the international review process is now in progress, in order to make a selection of the focal plane instruments. Here, we report the current status of SPICA/FPC project.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.243-246
• /
• 2012

An off-axis four-mirror-anastigmatic telescope is presented here which is composed of two aspheric surfaces and two spherical surfaces. The entrance pupil diameter is 290 mm and the stop is located at the primary mirror. The effective focal length is 900 mm. The strip field of view for the telescope is $15^{\circ}{\times}0.2^{\circ}$ and if the telescope is launched into an orbit about 400 km altitude, the observed range width will be more than 105 km within a scene without any other auxiliary scanning instrument. The spectral range can be as wide as from visual wave band to infrared wave band in the mirror system. This telescope can be used for environmental monitoring with different detectors whose pixel is adapted to the optical resolution. In this paper, the spectral range is chosen as 3.0 -5.0 ${\mu}m$, and center distance of the pixel is 30 ${\mu}m$. And the image quality is near the diffraction limit.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.56.2-56.2
• /
• 2010

The SPICA (SPace Infrared Telescope for Cosmology & Astrophysics) project is a next-generation astronomical mission optimized for mid- and far-infrared observation with a cryogenically cooled 3m-class telescope. Due to its high angular resolution and unprecedented sensitivity, SPICA will enable us to resolve many key issues in the present-day astronomy. As an international collaboration, KASI proposed the near-infrared instrument which is composed of two parts; (1) science observation with the capability of imaging and spectroscopy covering $0.7{\mu}m$ to $5{\mu}m$ (FPC-S) (2) fine guiding to stabilize and improve the attitude (FPC-G). Here, we introduce the science programs proposed for SPICA/FPC-S.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.82.1-82.1
• /
• 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. Owing to unprecedented sensitivity and high spatial resolution, the focal plane instruments are expected to perform the confusion-limited observation. The SPICA will challenge to reveal many astronomical key issues from the star-formation history of the universe to the planetary formation. The Korean 5contribution to SPICA as an international collaboration is the development of the near-infrared instrument, FPC (Focal Plane Camera). The Korean consortium for FPC proposed a key system instrument for the purpose of a fine guiding (FPC-G) complementing the AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control System). The back-up instrument of FPC-G, FPC-S will be responsible for the scientific observations as well. Through the international review process, we have revised the scientific programs and made the feasibility study for the fine guiding system. Here, we report the current status of SPICA/FPC project.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.301-303
• /
• 2012

We present the result of our near infrared J- (${\lambda}=1.25{\mu}m$), H- (${\lambda}=1.63{\mu}m$), and $K_s$-band (${\lambda}=2.14{\mu}m$) imaging of ultraluminous ($L_{IR}$ > $10^{12}L_{\odot}$) and luminous ($L_{IR}=10^{11-12}L_{\odot}$) infrared galaxies (ULIRGs and LIRGs), to investigate their relationship through properties of their host galaxies. We find that (1) for single-nucleus ULIRGs and LIRGs, their spheroidal host galaxies have similar properties, but ULIRGs display a substantially higher level of nuclear activity than LIRGs, suggesting that their infrared luminosity difference comes primarily from the different level of current nuclear activity. We infer that LIRGs and ULIRGs have similar progenitor galaxies, follow similar evolutionary processes, and may evolve into optically-selected QSOs. (2) Largely-separated multiple-nuclei ULIRGs have significantly brighter host galaxies than single-nucleus ULIRGs and LIRGs in $K_s$-band, indicating that multiple-nuclei ULIRGs have a bias towards mergers of intrinsically large progenitor galaxies, in order to produce high infrared luminosity ($L_{IR}$ > $10^{12}L_{\odot}$) even at the early merging stage. (3) We derive dust extinction of host galaxies of ULIRGs and LIRGs to be $A_V$ ~ 14 mag in the optical or equivalently $A_K$ ~ 0.8 mag in the near-infrared $K_s$-band, based on the comparison of host galaxy's luminosities in the J-, H-, and $K_s$-bands.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.70.2-70.2
• /
• 2010

We present near- and mid-infrared images of the Crab Nebula, taken with the Infrared Camera (IRC) onboard the AKARI infrared space telescope. These images have a field-of-view of 10'*10' and show the full extent of the nebula at 3, 4, 7, 11, 15, and 24 um. The Crab nebula in near infrared is dominated by synchrotron emission while, in mid infrared, the ionic forbidden lines of Ar, Ne, S, and Fe makes significant contribution. We separate the line emission from synchrotron emission in 3-15 um AKARI bands using the ISOCAM CVF data, and present separate images for the line and synchrotron emissions in each band. We derive the total synchrotron fluxes of the Crab nebula in these bands, which are used to complete the synchrotron spectral energy distribution of the Crab nebula from radio to X-rays. We discuss the spectral variations of the Crab nebula.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.76.2-76.2
• /
• 2013

SPICA(SPace Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics) is an infrared space observatory with cooled telescope of 3 m aperture. Because of its large aperture, near- and mid-infrared instruments onboard SPICA require fine guidance with attitude accuracy less than 0.1 arcsecond. The FPC-G is a focal plane camera to achieve this high attitude accuracy and KASI is leading its development. The SPICA project is now under the Risk Mitigation Phase 2 (RMP2) and one of major risks is to satisfy the requirement of pointing and attitude control. To assess the impacts of disturbance sources on the attitude control and devise methods to mitigate possible risks, a software simulator of the FPC-G is under the development. In this presentation, we report the status of development of the simulator and the development plan during the RMP2.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.82.2-82.2
• /
• 2013

The NISS (Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer for Star formation history) onboard NEXTSat-1 is being developed by KASI. The NISS will perform the imaging low-resolution spectroscopic observation in the near-infrared range for nearby galaxies, low background regions, starforming regions and so on. The off-axis reflecting telescope with a wide field of view (2 deg. ${\times}$ 2 deg.) will be operated in the wavelength range from 0.95 to $3.8{\mu}m$. In order to reduce thermal noise, a telescope and a HgCdTe infrared sensor will be cooled down to 200K and 80K, respectively. To evade a stray light outside a field of view and use limited space efficiently, the NISS adopted the off-axis reflective optical system. The primary and secondary mirrors, optomechanical part and mechanical structure were designed to use the same material. It will lessen the degradation of optical performance due to a thermal variation. The purpose of NISS is the observation of cosmic near-infrared background in the wide wavelength range as well as the detection of near-infrared spectral lines in nearby galaxies, cluster of galaxies and star forming regions. It will give us less biased information on the star formation history. In addition, we will demonstrate the space technologies related to the development of the Korea's leading near-infrared instrument for the future large infrared telescope, SPICA.

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