• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.122.2-122.2
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• 2011

For more than a decade, NEA (Near-Earth Asteroid) survey teams equipped with 1 meter-class telescopes discovered thousands of NEAs in the northern sky. As of August 2011, some 8,200 NEAs have been cataloged, yet only five percent of them has been investigated for their physical and chemical properties. In order to improve current situation, we propose a deep ecliptic survey utilizing KMTNet, for detection and characterization of NEAs in the southern sky. Thanks to the wide-field capability (four square degrees) of the telescopes, we will be able to considerably expand the search volume carrying out precision photometry down to 21.5th magnitude. We plan to focus our survey on opposition and two "sweet spots" in the ecliptic belt. Since SDSS colors characterize mineralogical properties of NEAs, g', r', i', z' filters will be employed. Based on the round-the-clock observation, we will study their rotational properties; for multiple systems, mass, density and other physical parameters can be obtained. We plan to maintain a dedicated database of the physical and mineralogical properties of NEAs. With this archive, it is expected that our understanding on the population will see a drastic change. We also plan to participate in the GAIA Follow-Up Network for ground based observation of the Solar System Objects (GAIA-FUN-SSO). The follow- up astrometry will be performed upon alerts issued by the GAIA-FUN-SSO Central Node in France.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.54.2-54.2
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• 2016

Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) is the first optical survey system of its kind in a way that three KMTNet observatories are longitudinally well-separated, and thus have the benefit of 24-hour continuous monitoring of the southern sky. The wide-field and round-the-clock operation capabilities of this network facility are ideal for survey and the physical characterization of small Solar System bodies. We obtain their orbits, absolute magnitudes (H), three dimensional shape models, spin periods and spin states, activity levels based on the time-series broadband photometry. Their approximate surface mineralogy is also identified using colors and band slopes. The automated observation scheduler, the data pipeline, the dedicated computing facility, related research activity and the team members are collectively called 'DEEP-South' (DEep Ecliptic Patrol of Southern sky). DEEP-South observation is being made during the off-season for exoplanet search, yet part of the telescope time is shared in the period between when the Galactic bulge rises early in the morning and sets early in the evening. We present here the observation mode, strategy, software, test runs, early results, and the future plan of DEEP-South.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2016

We present surface photometry results of the dwarf galaxies in the nearby NGC 2784 galaxy group. We newly detected about 30 dwarf galaxy candidates at about 30 square degree area around the nearby NGC 2784 galaxy (D~10 Mpc and MV=-20.5) applying a visual inspection technique on the wide-field optical images taken by the KMTNet Supernova Program (KSP). Surface brightnesses of the objects estimated from the stacked-images with total exposure time of about 6 hours reach approximately ${\mu}V$ ~28.5 mag/arcsec2 around $3{\sigma}$ above sky background. The central surface brightness and the total absolute magnitude for the faintest candidate dwarf galaxy among about 40 galaxies including the previously known ones is ${\mu}0$, V~26.1 mag/arcsec2 and MV~-9.5 mag, respectively. The effective radii of the candidates are larger than ~200 pc. The radial number density of the dwarf galaxy candidates from the center of NGC 2784 is decreasing. The mean color (<(B-V)0>~0.7) and $S{\acute{e}}rsic$ structure parameters of the dwarfs, assuming them to be located in the NGC 2784 group, are well consistent with those of the dwarf galaxies in other groups (e.g. M83 group and the Local Group (LG)). The faint-end slope of the cumulative luminosity function (CLF) of the galaxies in NGC 2784 group is about ${\alpha}=-1.2$, which is steeper than that of the LG galaxies, but is much flatter than that of the CLF expected by a ${\Lambda}CDM$ model.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.57.2-57.2
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• 2019

The NISS (Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer for Star formation history) onboard NEXTSat-1 was successfully launched on last December and is now under the operation phase. The capability of both imaging and spectroscopy is a unique function of the NISS. It has realized the imaging spectroscopy (R~20) with a wide field of view of $2{\times}2deg$. in a wide near-infrared range from 0.95 to $2.5{\mu}m$. The major scientific mission is to study the cosmic star formation history in the local and distant universe. It also demonstrated the space technologies related to the infrared spectro-photometry in space. The NISS is performing the imaging spectroscopic survey for local star-forming galaxies, clusters of galaxies, star-forming regions, ecliptic deep fields and so on. As an extension of the NISS, the SPEHREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) was selected as the NASA MIDEX (Medium-class Explorer) mission (PI Institute: Caltech). As an international partner, KASI will participate in the development and the science for SPHEREx. It will perform the first all-sky infrared spectro-photometric survey to probe the origin of our Universe, to explore the origin and evolution of galaxies, and to explore whether planets around other stars could harbor life. Compared to the NISS, the SPHEREx is designed to have a much wider FoV of $3.5{\times}11.3deg$. as well as wider spectral range from 0.75 to $5.0{\mu}m$. Here, we introduce the status of the two space missions.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.319-326
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• 2006

We present light curves of a short period binary system BL Eridani. The light curves were observed with VRI filters by a 50cm wide field robotic telescope at Siding Spring Observatory (SSO), equipped with a 2K CCD camera, which was developed by Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), and Yonsei University Observatory(YUO). The photometric observations were made on 6 nights by automatic operation mode and remote observation mode at SSO and KASI in Korea, respectively. We obtained new VRI CCD light curves and new 5 times of minima, and analyzed the light corves with the Wilson & Deviney (1971) binary 2005 version and derived the new photometric solutions. The mass ratio q=0.48 in this study shows different value with earlier investigators. According to the model analysis, it is considered that the BL Eri system is currently undergoing contact stage of the two binary components, rather than near-contact stage.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2016

Multiple color selection techniques are successful in identifying quasars from wide-field broadband imaging survey data. Among the quasars that have been discovered so far, however, there is a redshift gap at 5 ≲ z ≲ 5.7 due to the limitations of filter sets in previous studies. In this work, we present a new selection technique of high redshift quasars using a sequence of medium-band filters: nine filters with central wavelengths from 625 to 1025 nm and bandwidths of 50 nm. Photometry with these medium-bands traces the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a source, similar to spectroscopy with resolution R ~ 15. By conducting medium-band observations of high redshift quasars at 4.7 ≤ z ≤ 6.0 and brown dwarfs (the main contaminants in high redshift quasar selection) using the SED camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (SQUEAN) on the 2.1-m telescope at the McDonald Observatory, we show that these medium-band filters are superior to multi-color broad-band color section in separating high redshift quasars from brown dwarfs. In addition, we show that redshifts of high redshift quasars can be determined to an accuracy of Δz/(1 + z) = 0.002 - 0.026. The selection technique can be extended to z ~ 7, suggesting that the medium-band observation can be powerful in identifying quasars even at the re-ionization epoch.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.393-408
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• 2005

We developed and compared two automatic algorithms for moving object detections in the YSTAR-NEOPAT sky survey program. One method, called starlist comparison method, is to identify moving object candidates by comparing the photometry data tables from successive images. Another method, called image subtraction method, is to identify the candidates by subtracting one image from another which isolates sources moving against background stars. The efficiency and accuracy of these algorithms have been tested using actual survey data from the YSTAR-NEOPAT telescope system. For the detected candidates, we performed eyeball inspection of animated images to confirm validity of asteroid detections. Main conclusions include followings. First, the optical distortion in the YSTAR-NEOPAT wide-field images can be properly corrected by comparison with USNO-B1.0 catalog and the astrometric accuracy can be preserved at around 1.5 arcsec. Secondly, image subtraction provides more robust and accurate detection of moving objects. For two different thresholds of 2.0 and $4.0\sigma$, image subtraction method uncovered 34 and 12 candidates and most of them are confirmed to be real. Starlist comparison method detected many more candidates, 60 and 6 for each threshold level, but nearly half of them turned out to be false detections.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.47-63
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• 2021

Variability is one of the major characteristics of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), and it is used for understanding the energy generation mechanism in the center of AGN and/or related physical phenomena. It it known that there exists a time lag between AGN light curves simultaneously observed at different wavelengths, which can be used as a tool to estimate the size of the area that produce the radiation. In this paper, We present long term near-infrared variability of optically bright type 1 AGN using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer data. From the Milliquas catalogue v6.4, 73 type 1 QSOs/AGN and 140 quasar candidates are selected that are brighter than 18 mag in optical and located within 5 degree around the ecliptic poles. Light curves in the W1 band (3.4 ㎛) and W2 band (4.6 ㎛) during the period of 2010-2019 were constructed for these objects by extracting multi-epoch photometry data from WISE and NEOWISE all sky survey database. Variability was analyzed based on the excess variance and the probability P_var. Applying both criteria, the numbers of variable objects are 19 (i.e., 26%) for confirmed AGN and 12 (i.e., 9%) for AGN candidates. The characteristic time scale of the variability (τ) and the variability amplitude (σ) were derived by fitting the DRW model to W1 and W2 light curves. No significant correlation is found between the W1/W2 magnitude and the derived variability parameters. Based on the subsample that are identified in the X-ray source catalog, there exists little correlation between the X-ray luminosity and the variability parameters. We also found four AGN with changing W1-W2 color.