• 천문학회지
• /
• 제40권4호
• /
• pp.131-132
• /
• 2007

The research of OH maser emission sources with high angular resolution is complicated by the effects of interstellar scattering: more over, most of the OH maser sources are located in the galactic plane where the scattering is largest. However, the data available from pulsar studies on the spatial distribution of the amount of scattering indicate that there is a strong non-uniformity in the distribution of the amount of scattering material. There are directions in the galactic plane where the scattering is an order of magnitude higher than the average, as well as directions where the scattering is much lower. The latter provide an opportunity to investigate OH masers with the full angular resolution offered by very long baseline interferometry instruments, like the VLBA, and measure their true angular size, shape and brightness temperature. We have observed approximately 100 OH maser sources, distributed all over the northern hemisphere, with the VLBA in order to study the scattering properties of the interstellar medium.

• 천문학회지
• /
• 제38권2호
• /
• pp.249-252
• /
• 2005

We present results of the velocity-resolved spectroscopy of the [Fe II] $\lambda$1.644${\mu}m$ emission toward outflow sources with the Subaru Telescope at the angular resolution of 0.apos;16 ${\~}$ 0.apos;5 arcseconds. The observed sources are L1551 IRS 5, DG Tau, HL Tau and RW Aur, which are located in the Taurus-Aurigae Molecular Cloud, one of the closest star forming regions (0.apos;1 = 14 AU). We were able to resolve outflow structure in the vicinity of the sources at a scale of a few tens of AU. The position-velocity diagram of each object shows two velocity components: the high velocity component (HVC: 200 - 400 km $s^{-l}$) and the low velocity component (LVC: 50 - 150 km $s^{-l}$), which are clearly distinct in space and velocity. The HVC may be a highly collimated jet presumed from its narrow velocity width and high velocity. The LVC, on the other hand, may be a widely opened disk wind inferred from its broad velocity width and low velocity. The spectrum taken perpendicular to the L1551 IRS 5 outflow at its base shows that the LVC has a spatially wide subcomponent, supporting the above interpretation. We demonstrated that the [Fe II] 1.644 $\mu$ spectroscopy is a very powerful tool for the studies of fast jets and winds that directly emanate from star-disk systems.

• 천문학논총
• /
• 제30권2호
• /
• pp.109-112
• /
• 2015

We present [$Fe\;{\small{II}}$] ${\lambda}1.257{\mu}m$ spectra toward the interacting binary UY Aur with 0".14 angular resolution, obtained with the Near infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) combined with the adaptive optics system Altair of the GEMINI observatory. In the [$Fe\;{\small{II}}$] emission, UY Aur A (primary) is brighter than UY Aur B (secondary). The blueshifted and redshifted emission between the primary and secondary show a complicated structure. The radial velocities of the [$Fe\;{\small{II}}$] emission features are similar for UY Aur A and B: ${\sim}-100km\;s^{-1}$ and ${\sim}+130km\;s^{-1}$ for the blueshifted and redshifted components, respectively. Considering the morphologies of the [$Fe\;{\small{II}}$] emissions and bipolar outflow context, we concluded that UY Aur A drives fast and widely opening outflows with an opening angle of ${\sim}90^{\circ}$ while UY Aur B has micro collimated jets.

• 천문학회보
• /
• 제44권1호
• /
• pp.59.1-59.1
• /
• 2019

Immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is an important place to test general relativity in strong gravity regime. Also, this is a place where mass accretion and jet formation actively occurs at the centers of active galaxies. Theoretical studies predict presence of bright ring-like emission encircling an accreting SMBH with a diameter of about 5 Schwarzschild radii, and a flux depression at the center (i.e., BH shadow). Direct imaging of the BH shadow is accordingly of great importance in modern astrophysics. However, the angular sizes of the horizon-scale structures are desperately small (e.g., ~40-50 microarcseconds (uas) diameter for the nearest best candidates). This poses serious challenges to observe them directly. Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a global network of sensitive radio telescopes operating at 230 GHz (1.3 mm), providing ultra-high angular resolution of 20 uas by cutting-edge very long baseline interferometry techniques. With this resolution, EHT aims to directly image the nearest SMBHs; M87 and the galactic center Sgr $A{\ast}$ (~40-50 uas diameters). In Spring 2017, the EHT collaboration conducted a global campaign of EHT and multiwavelength observations of M87 and Sgr $A{\ast}$, with addition of the phased ALMA to the 1.3mm VLBI array. In this talk, I review results from past mm-VLBI and EHT observations, provide updates on the results from the 2017 campaign, and future perspectives.

• 천문학회지
• /
• 제27권2호
• /
• pp.159-175
• /
• 1994

We have mapped the whole extent of a dark cloud Lynds 1251 in the emission of the J=1-0 transitions of $^{12}CO\;and\;^{13}CO$ using FCRAO's fifteen-beam array receiver in high angular resolution of 50'. We have derived physical parameters of L1251, discussed three different mass estimate techniques, and obtained a large range of mass, 600 to $6,000M_\bigodot$, depending on the techniques. The factor of 10 discrepancy between the virial and LTE masses is much larger than expected based on the uncertainties residing in two methods. The large virial mass may reflect the fact that L1251 is not gravitationally bound system as in the case of dark clouds in solar neighborhood. Two outflows are affecting the dynamics of cloud significantly but not enough to reshape the whole extent of the cloud. The small cloud, 'Stripe', which is apparently connected with main cloud, is not likely to be associated with L1251. The velocity gradient composed on this small cloud may be driven by other unknown sources. It is found that L1251 cloud itself is very quiescent except the two bipolar outflow regions.

• 천문학회지
• /
• 제55권4호
• /
• pp.87-97
• /
• 2022

Polarimetric measurements of the lunar surface from lunar orbit soon will be available via Wide-Field Polarimetric Camera (PolCam) onboard the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), which is planned to be launched in mid 2022. To provide calibration data for the PolCam, we are conducting speckle polarimetric measurements of the nearside of the Moon from the Earth's ground. It appears that speckle imaging of the Moon for scientific purposes has not been attempted before, and there is need for a procedure to create a "lucky image" from a number of observed speckle images. As a first step of obtaining calibration data for the PolCam from the ground, we search for the best sharpness measure for lunar surfaces. We then calculate the minimum number of speckle images and the number of images to be shift-and-added for higher resolution (sharpness) and signal-to-noise ratio.

• 천문학회지
• /
• 제52권2호
• /
• pp.31-40
• /
• 2019

A long standing problem in the study of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) is that the observed VLBI core is in fact a blending of the actual AGN core (classically defined by the ${\tau}=1$ surface) and the upstream regions of the jet or optically thin flows. This blending may cause some biases in the observables of the core, such as its flux density, size or brightness temperature, which may lead to misleading interpretation of the derived quantities and physics. We study the effects of such blending under the view of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) for a sample of AGNs at 43 GHz by comparing their observed properties with observations obtained using the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA). Our results suggest that the observed core sizes are a factor ~ 11 larger than these of VLBA, which is similar to the factor expected by considering the different resolutions of the two facilities. We suggest the use of this factor to consider blending effects in KVN measurements. Other parameters, such as flux density or brightness temperature, seem to possess a more complicated dependence.

• 천문학회보
• /
• 제44권1호
• /
• pp.59.2-59.2
• /
• 2019

Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) aims to resolve the innermost region to the super massive black hole (SMBH) with its extremely high angular resolution (~20-25 uas) and enhanced sensitivity (down to 1-10 mJy) in concert with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at 1.3 mm wavelength. This has a great importance as the first observational probe of the black hole shadow which has been theoretically predicted as a ring-like emission affected by the general relativistic effect under a strong gravitational field of SMBH. During the 2017 April 5-11, four nights of EHT observing campaign were carried out towards its primary targets, M87 and $SgrA{\ast}$. To robustly ensure the data processing, independent pipelines for various radio data calibration softwares (e.g., AIPS, HOPS, CASA) have been developed and cross-compared each other. The EHT has also been developing newer interferometric imaging techniques (e.g., eht-imaging-library, SMILI, dynamical imaging), as well as using an established method (CLEAN). With these, the EHT has designed various strategies which will be adopted for convincing imaging results. In this talk, I review how the robustness of EHT data processing and imaging will be validated so that the results can be ensured against well known uncertainties or biases in the interferometric data calibration and imaging.

• 천문학회지
• /
• 제48권5호
• /
• pp.277-284
• /
• 2015

We present our efforts for extending the simultaneous multi-frequency receiver system of the Korean Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network (KVN) to global baselines in order to measure the frequency-dependent position shifts in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) jets, the so called core shift effect, with an unprecedented accuracy (a few micro-arcseconds). Millimeter VLBI observations with simultaneous multi-frequency receiver systems, like those of the KVN, enable us to explore the innermost regions of AGN and high precision astrometry. Such a system is capable of locating the frequency dependent opacity changes accurately. We have conducted the feasibility test-observations with the interested partners by implementing the KVN-compatible systems. Here we describe the science case for measuring the core shift effect in the AGN jet and report progress and future plans on extending the simultaneous multi-frequency system to global baselines.

• 천문학회지
• /
• 제48권5호
• /
• pp.237-255
• /
• 2015

The Interferometric Monitoring of Gamma–ray Bright Active galactic nuclei (iMOGABA) program provides not only simultaneous multifrequency observations of bright gamma–ray detected active galactic nuclei (AGN), but also covers the highest Very Large Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) frequencies ever being systematically monitored, up to 129 GHz. However, observation and imaging of weak sources at the highest observed frequencies is very challenging. In the second paper in this series, we evaluate the viability of the frequency phase transfer technique to iMOGABA in order to obtain larger coherence time at the higher frequencies of this program (86 and 129 GHz) and image additional sources that were not detected using standard techniques. We find that this method is applicable to the iMOGABA program even under non–optimal weather conditions.