• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.57.1-57.1
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• 2021

The icy mantles of interstellar grains are developed by the freeze-out of interstellar molecules and atoms onto grain surfaces. The ice molecules become more complex by surface chemistry induced directly by high energy photons or by the thermal energy diffused over heated grain surface. Therefore, the ice composition is an important tracer of physical conditions where the ices form. Ices have been studied via their absorption features against continuum sources, such as young stellar objects or evolved background stars, in infrared wavelengths. The Spitzer IRS was the most sensitive spectrometer for the observations of infrared ice absorption features. We has been developing an automated analysis tool for the Spitzer IRS spectra, especially for the 15 ㎛ CO₂ bending mode. The 15 ㎛ CO₂ absorption feature is very useful for the study of accretion process in star formation since its spectral shape varies with thermal condition of the dust grains. Eventually, this tool will cover the whole range of the Spitzer IRS spectrum (5~20 ㎛).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.68.2-68.2
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• 2013

Camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (CQUEAN) is an optical CCD camera system made by Center for Exploration of the Origin of the Universe (CEOU). CQUEAN is developed for follow-up observation of red sources such as high-redshift quasar candidates ($z{\geq}5$), gamma-ray bursts (GRB), brown dwarfs and young stellar objects. The CQUEAN is composed of a science camera with deep-depletion CCD chip which is sensitive at around $1{\mu}m$, a set of custom-made wide-band filters for detection of quasar candidates at z~5, and a guide camera. A focal reducer was developed to secure $4.8^{\prime}{\times}4.8^{\prime}$ field of view, and an in-house user software for efficient data acquisition. CQUEAN was attached to 2.1m Otto Struve Telescope in McDonald Observatory, USA, in August 2010. About 1000 quasar candidates including 3 confirmed with follow-up spectroscopy, have been observed so far, and many high-z galaxy cluster candidates, GRBs and supernovae were also observed. And monitoring of HBC 722, a young stellar object, is under way since 2011. Further enhancement of CQUEAN including the introduction of narrow-band filters is planned.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.34.2-34.2
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• 2017

A small wide-field imaging telescope is a powerful instrument to survey the Universe: wide-field image can monitor the variability of many sources at a time, e.g. young stellar objects and active galactic nuclei, and it can be an effective way to locate transient sources without precise positional information such as gravitational wave sources or some gamma-ray bursts. In February 2017, we installed a 0.25 m f/3.6 telescope on the McDonald 0.8 m telescope as a piggyback system. With a $4k{\times}4k$ CCD camera, the telescope has a $2.35{\times}2.35deg$ field-of-view. Currently, it is equipped with Johnson UBVRI filters and 3 narrow-band filters: $H{\alpha}$, OIII and SII. We will present the installation process, and the telescope performance such as detection limit and image quality based on the data from commissioning observations. We will also discuss possible scientific projects with this system.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.559-563
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• 2015

Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) is a Japanese X-ray all-sky surveyer mounted on the International Space Station (ISS). It has been scanning the whole sky since 2009 during every 92-minute ISS rotation. X-ray transients are quickly found by the real-time nova-search program. As a result, MAXI has issued 133 Astronomer's Telegrams and 44 Gamma-ray burst Coordinated Networks so far. MAXI has discovered six new black holes (BH) in 4.5 years. Long-term behaviors of the MAXI BHs can be classified into two types by their outbursts; a fast-rise exponential-decay type and a fast-rise flat-top one. The slit camera is suitable for accumulating data over a long time. MAXI issued a 37-month catalog containing 500 sources above a ~0.6 mCrab detection limit at 4-10 keV in the region ${\mid}{b}{\mid}$ > $10^{\circ}$. The SSC instrument utilizing an X-ray CCD has detected diffuse soft X-rays extending over a large solid angle, such as the Cygnus super bubble. MAXI/SSC has also detcted a Ne emission line from the rapid soft X-ray nova MAXI J0158-744. The overall shapes of outbursts in Be X-ray binaries (BeXRB) are precisely observed with MAXI/GSC. BeXRB have two kinds of outbursts, a normal outburst and a giant one. The peak dates of the subsequent giant outbursts of A0535+26 repeated with a different period than the orbital one. The Be stellar disk is considered to either have a precession motion or a distorted shape. The long-term behaviors of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXB) containing weakly magnetized neutron stars are investigated. Transient LMXBs (Aql X-1 and 4U 1608-52) repeated outbursts every 200-1000 days, which is understood by the limit-cycle of hydrogen ionization states in the outer accretion disk. A third state (very dim state) in Aql X-1 and 4U 1608-52 was interpreted as the propeller effect in the unified picture of LMXB. Cir X-1 is a peculiar source in the sense that its long-term behavior is not like typical LMXBs. The luminosity sometimes decreases suddenly at periastron. It might be explained by the stripping of the outer accretion disk by a clumpy stellar wind. MAXI observed 64 large flares from 22 active stars (RS CVns, dMe stars, Argol types, young stellar objects) over 4 years. The total energies are $10^{34}-10^{36}$ erg $s^{-1}$. Since MAXI can measure the spectrum (temperature and emission measure), we can estimate the size of the plasma and the magnetic fields. The size sometimes exceeds the size of the star. The magnetic field is in the range of 10-100 gauss, which is a typical value for solar flares.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2017

An adaptive optics system can be simulated or analyzed to predict its closed-loop performance. However, this type of prediction based on various assumptions can occasionally produce outcomes which are far from actual experience. Thus, every adaptive optics system is desired to be tested in a closed loop on an optical test bench before its application to a telescope. In the close-loop test bench, we need an atmospheric simulator that simulates atmospheric disturbances, mostly in phase, in terms of spatial and temporal behavior. We report the development of an atmospheric turbulence simulator consisting of two point sources, a commercially available deformable mirror with a $12{\times}12$ actuator array, and two random phase plates. The simulator generates an atmospherically distorted single or binary star with varying stellar magnitudes and angular separations. We conduct a simulation of a binary star by optically combining two point sources mounted on independent precision stages. The light intensity of each source (an LED with a pin hole) is adjustable to the corresponding stellar magnitude, while its angular separation is precisely adjusted by moving the corresponding stage. First, the atmospheric phase disturbance at a single instance, i.e., a phase screen, is generated via a computer simulation based on the thin-layer Kolmogorov atmospheric model and its temporal evolution is predicted based on the frozen flow hypothesis. The deformable mirror is then continuously best-fitted to the time-sequenced phase screens based on the least square method. Similarly, we also implement another simulation by rotating two random phase plates which were manufactured to have atmospheric-disturbance-like residual aberrations. This later method is limited in its ability to simulate atmospheric disturbances, but it is easy and inexpensive to implement. With these two methods, individually or in unison, we can simulate typical atmospheric disturbances observed at the Bohyun Observatory in South Korea, which corresponds to an area from 7 to 15 cm with regard to the Fried parameter at a telescope pupil plane of 500 nm.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.83.1-83.1
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• 2011

We report multi-epoch, simultaneous 22 GHz water and 44 GHz Class I methanol maser line survey towards 180 intermediate-mass young stellar objects, including 14 Class 0, 19 Class I objects, and 147 Herbig Ae/Be stars. We detected $H_2O$ and $CH_3OH$ maser emission towards 16 (9%) and 10 (6%) sources with one new $H_2O$ and six new $CH_3OH$ maser sources. The detection rates of both masers rapidly decrease as the central (proto)stars evolve, which is contrary to the trends in high-mass star-forming regions. This suggests that the excitations of the two masers are closely related to the evolutionary stage of the central (proto)stars and the circumstellar environments. $H_2O$ maser velocities deviate on average 9 km s-1 from the ambient gas velocities whereas $CH_3OH$ maser velocities well match with. For both maser emissions, large velocity difference (${\mid}v_{H2O}-v_{sys}{\mid}\;>\; 10kms^{-1}\; and\;{\mid}v_{CH3OH}-v_{sys}{\mid}\;>\;1kms^{-1}$) is mostly confined to Class 0 objects. The formation and disappearance of $H_2O$ maser lines are frequent and the integrated intensities of them change up to two orders of magnitude. In contrast, $CH_3OH$ maser lines usually show no significant change in the intensity, shape, and velocity. This consistent with the previous suggestion that $H_2O$ maser emission originates from the base of an outflow while 44 GHz Class I $CH_3OH$ maser emission arises from the interaction region of the outflow with the ambient gas. The isotropic maser luminosities are well correlated with the bolometric luminosities of the central the objects. The fitted relations are $L_{H2O}=1.71{\ast}10^{-9}(L_{bol})^{0.97}$ and $L_{CH3OH}=1.71{\ast}10^{-10}(L_{bol})^{1.22}$.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.65.2-65.2
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• 2013

We present a study of outflows on 24 embedded young stellar objects (YSOs), which are selected from the sources of the Dust, Ice, and Gas in Time (DIGIT) Herschel key program. Molecular outflow activity, which is believed to have strong dependence on accretion process, is the most powerful in the early embedded phase of star formation and declines as the central protostars evolve to the main sequence stage. In order to study the relation between the CO outflow observed in low J transitions and the properties of protostars, we mapped the CO outows of the selected targets in J = 1-0 and J = 2-1 lines with the 14-m TRAO telescope and the 6-m SRAO telescope, respectively. We estimate CO outflow momentum fluxes (Fco) and compare with bolometric luminosity, Lbol, bolometric temperature, Tbol, and the FIR molecular line luminosities of CO, $H_2O$, OH and [O I], which were detected by the Herschel-PACS observations. We found that $Fco_{1-0}$ is greater than $Fco_{2-1}$, and the mean ratio is about 2. L1455-IRS3 and IRAM04191 have high Fco in spite of low $L_{bol}$. The well known correlation between Fco and $L_{bol}$. is not very evident from all our samples. However, Fco and $L_{bol}$. show a rather strong correlation if L1455-IRS3 and IRAM04191 are excluded. Fco shows little correlation with FIR line luminosities of individual species, while the total FIR line luminosity summed over CO, $H_2O$, OH, and [OI] lines seems to have some correlation. In addition, we report 22 GHz $H_2O$, and 44 GHz CH3OH maser line detections in four sources out of the 24 YSOs.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.177-179
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• 2012

We present Spitzer IRS spectroscopy of $CO_2$ ice toward 19 young stellar objects (YSOs) with luminosity lower than $1L_{\odot}$. Pure $CO_2$ ice forms only at elevated temperatures, T > 20 K, and thus at higher luminosities. Current internal luminosities of YSOs with L < $1L_{\odot}$ do not provide such conditions out to radii of typical envelopes. Significant amounts of pure $CO_2$ ice would signify a higher past luminosity. We analyze $15.2{\mu}m$ $CO_2$ ice bending mode absorption lines in comparison to the laboratory data. We decompose pure $CO_2$ ice from 12 out of 19 young low luminosity sources. The presence of the pure $CO_2$ ice component indicates high dust temperature and hence high luminosity in the past. The sum of all the ice components (total $CO_2$ ice amount) can be explained by a long period of low luminosity stage between episodic accretion bursts as predicted in an episodic accretion scenario. Chemical modeling shows that the episodic accretion scenario explains the observed total $CO_2$ ice amount best.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.321-324
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• 2012

Using extensive mid-IR datasets from AKARI, i.e. 9-band photometry covering the wavelength range from $2{\mu}m$ to $24{\mu}m$ and the unbiased spectroscopic survey for sources with $S_{\nu}$($9{\mu}m$)>0.3 mJy, we study starburst galaxies specifically at the redshift of z ~ 0.5, whose mid-IR spectra are clearly dominated by the PAH emission features. PAH-selected galaxies, selected with extremely red mid-IR colour due to PAHs, have high rest-frame PAH-to-stellar luminosity ratios, comparable to those in the most active regions in nearby starburst galaxies. Thus, they seem to have active starburst regions spreading over the whole body. Furthermore, some of PAH-selected galaxies are found to have peculiar rest-frame 11-to-$8{\mu}m$ flux ratios, which is systematically smaller than nearby starburst/AGN spectral templates. This may indicate a systematic difference in the physical condition of ISM between nearby and distant starburst galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.43.1-43.1
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• 2014

We report on the optical spectroscopic analysis of a Low Luminosity Quasi Stellar Objects (LLQSOs) sample at $z{\leq}0.06$ based on the Hamburg/ESO QSO survey (HES). To better relate the low-redshift Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) to the QSO population it is important to study samples of the latter type at a level of detail similar to that of the low-redshift AGN. Powerful QSOs, however, are absent at low redshifts due to evolutionary effects and their small space density. Our understanding of the (distant) QSO population is, therefore, significantly limited by angular resolution and sensitivity. The LLQSOs presented here offer the possibility to study the faint end of this population at smaller cosmological distances and, therefore, in greater detail. This, in turn, provides information about the key ingredients with respect to fueling and feedback of QSOs, and their relative importance/strength. Here, we present results of the analysis of visible wavelength spectroscopy provided by the HES and the 6 Degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). Interesting differences in the taxonomy of the sources having both types of spectra have been noticed and will be discussed.