• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.57.4-58
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• 2021

Asteroids have undergone various processes such as impacts, space weathering, and thermal evolution. Because they expose their surfaces to space without atmosphere, these evolutional processes have been recorded directly on their surfaces. The remote-sensing observations have been conducted to reveal these evolutional histories of the target asteroids. For example, crater and boulder distributions are unambiguous evidence for past nondestructive impacts with other celestial bodies. Multiband and spectroscopic observations have revealed space-weathering history (as well as compositions). Whereas most physical quantities have been examined intensively using spacecraft and telescopes, only a little has been studied on "the grain size". It is one of the fundamental physical quantities for diagnosing the collisional and thermal history of asteroids. Our group has conducted polarimetric research of asteroids (as well as Moon [1]) to determine the particle size and further investigate the evolutional histories of target asteroids [2],[3]. For example, the existence of regolith on an S-type asteroid, Toutatis, was suggested almost twenty years before space exploration [4]. Moreover, we reported that near-Sun asteroids indicate a signature of submillimeter grains, which could be created by a thermal sintering process by solar radiation [5]. However, it is important to note that in-situ polarimetry has not been reported on the asteroid surface, although the Korean Lunar Exploration Program aims to do polarimetry on the lunar surface [6]. Therefore, it is expected that the polarizer mounted on the Korean Apophis spacecraft can make the first estimate of the grain size and its regional variation over the Apophis surface. In this presentation, we outline research of S-type asteroid surfaces through remote-sensing observations and consider the role of polarimetry. Based on this review, we consider the purpose, potentiality, and strategy of the polarimetry using the onboard device for the Apophis spacecraft. We will report a possible polarization phase curve of Apophis estimated from ordinary chondrites and past observational data of S-type asteroids, taking account of the space weathering effect. Based on this estimation, we will consider the strategy of how to determine the particle size (and space weathering degree) of the Apophis surface. We will also mention the detectability of dust hovering on the surface.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2005

The Korean VLBI Network (KVN) will open a new field of research in astronomy, geodesy and earth science using the newest three Elm radio telescopes. This will expand our ability to look at the Universe in the millimeter regime. Imaging capability of radio interferometry is highly dependent upon the antenna configuration, source size, declination and the shape of target. In this paper, imaging simulations are carried out with the KVN system configuration. Five test images were used which were a point source, multi-point sources, a uniform sphere with two different sizes compared to the synthesis beam of the KVN and a Very Large Array (VLA) image of Cygnus A. The declination for the full time simulation was set as +60 degrees and the observation time range was -6 to +6 hours around transit. Simulations have been done at 22GHz, one of the KVN observation frequency. All these simulations and data reductions have been run with the Astronomical Image Processing System (AIPS) software package. As the KVN array has a resolution of about 6 mas (milli arcsecond) at 220Hz, in case of model source being approximately the beam size or smaller, the ratio of peak intensity over RMS shows about 10000:1 and 5000:1. The other case in which model source is larger than the beam size, this ratio shows very low range of about 115:1 and 34:1. This is due to the lack of short baselines and the small number of antenna. We compare the coordinates of the model images with those of the cleaned images. The result shows mostly perfect correspondence except in the case of the 12mas uniform sphere. Therefore, the main astronomical targets for the KVN will be the compact sources and the KVN will have an excellent performance in the astrometry for these sources.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2019

Intensive Monitoring Survey of Nearby Galaxies (IMSNG) is a high cadence observation program monitoring nearby galaxies with high probabilities of hosting supernovae (SNe). IMSNG aims to constrain the SN explosion mechanism by inferring sizes of SN progenitor systems through the detection of the shock-heated emission that lasts less than a few days after the SN explosion. To catch the signal, IMSNG utilizes a network of 0.5-m to 1-m class telescopes around the world and monitors the images of 60 nearby galaxies at distances D < 50 Mpc to a cadence as short as a few hours. The target galaxies are bright in near-ultraviolet (NUV) with $M_{NUV}$ < -18.4 AB mag and have high probabilities of hosting SNe ($0.06SN\;yr^{-1}$ per galaxy). With this strategy, we expect to detect the early light curves of 3.4 SNe per year to a depth of R ~ 19.5 mag, enabling us to detect the shock-heated emission from a progenitor star with a radius as small as $0.1R_{\odot}$. The accumulated data will be also useful for studying faint features around the target galaxies and other science projects. So far, 18 SNe have occurred in our target fields (16 in IMSNG galaxies) over 5 years, confirming our SN rate estimate of $0.06SN\;yr^{-1}$ per galaxy.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.73-94
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• 2022

Florence is the cradle of the Italian Renaissance. It is the result of a combination of medieval humanists' exploration of ancient Greek and Roman knowledge and culture, the leadership of great monarchs and priests, patronage of the Medici family, etc., free-thinking and creativity of artists, and critical consciousness and cultural needs of citizens. However, the Florentine Renaissance could not have blossomed unless the Medici family had collected ancient manuscripts and translations, and built libraries to preserve and provide literature. Based on this logical basis, this study outlined the Florentine renaissance and historic libraries, analyzed the collection and composition of favorite books of the Medici family, and traced the architectural characteristics and metaphors of the Medici libraries, The San Marco Library (Michelozzo Library), Library of Badia Fiesolana, and the San Lorenzo Library (Laurentian Library) were the priming and birthplace of the Florentine Renaissance despite of many difficulties, including earthquake, fire, restoration, transfer, seizure, and closure. In particular, the San Marco Library, which was opened in 1444 based on the financial support of Cosimo de' Medici, Michelozzo's design, and Niccoli's private collections was the first common library in the Renaissance period. And the architectural highlight of the Laurentian Library, which opened in 1571 under the leadership of Giulio (Papa Clemente VII), is Michelangelo's staircase, which symbolizes 'from ignorance to wisdom', and the real value of the content is the ancient manuscripts and early printed books, which were collected by the humanist Niccoli and the Medici family. In short, when discussing the Florentine Renaissance, Medici's collection and historic libraries are very important points. The reason is that the ancient collections were not stuffed products, but syntactic semiotics, and the libraries are telescopes that view the history of human knowledge and culture and microscopes that create knowledge and wisdom. If records dominate memories, libraries accumulate records. Therefore, long breathing and time capsule strategies are also required for the development and preservation of retroactive books in domestic libraries with a relatively long history.