A number of physical phenomena are predicted to operate in astrophysical

settings theoretically and may be crucial for understanding the nature

of astrophysical objects. Magnetorotational instability (MRI) and

magnetic

dynamos are examples of such processes believed to be the key to the

origin and growth of magnetic fields in galaxies, accretion flows,

stars, planets and Universe as a whole. Although firmly predicted and

verified in theory, MRI has not been robustly reproduced in a physical

laboratory here on Earth. Recently, we discovered and successfully

observed

the analogue of MRI in a Couette-Taylor Flow of Polymer Fluids. A

limited

cases of a constrained dynamo have been reproduced in Riga and Karlsruhe

experiments. There are a number of groups working and building

laboratory

experiments to verify and study MRI and dynamos. I will review the

progress

made in these experiments, including works that I have been

involved with.

During the past decade, astronomy has undergone a period of rapid
growth in Taiwan. A number of groups have been established at the
universities as well as at the Academia Sinica. We will review the
current progress on a number of projects including SMA, AMiBA, TAOS,
CFHT/WIRCam, ALMA, and Subaru/HSC.

In this presentation, I will be talking about the optical designs and

analyses of the WFMOS high-resolution spectrograph(HRS).

WFMOS HRS is the next generation instrument of the Gemini/Subaru

consortium that aims to conduct spectroscopic studies of the

formation and evolution of the Galaxy, the study often termed as

\\\"Galactic Archaeology Survey\\\". Consisting of twin (or quadruple)

spectrographs, HRS is to be fed by 1500 fiber optics distributed over

the field of view (1.5 degrees in diameter) of the HyperSuprime

Camera (HSC) on the 8m Subaru telescope. The wavelength coverage is

from 420nm to 900nm. Following a brief introduction to the

main science objectives of the HRS instrument, the presentation will

discuss issues involved in the choice of diffraction gratings,

camera optics, and collimator designs as well as trade-off study

results in terms of system throughput and image quality. Current status

and future prospect of the project will also be covered.

The supermassive star, Eta Carinae, has attracted people\\/s attention with its

picturesque bipolar nebula structure seen in Hubble space telescope images. The

bipolar nebula was produced through an enormous outburst in 1840\\/s when Eta

Carinae became the 2nd brightest star in the sky. This event, which ejected more

than

~10 Msolar, was a signature of large-scale, unstable mass loss episodes at the

end of a massive star\\/s life.

With the advent of space telescopes, Eta Carinae has been observed in great

detail. However, direct emission from the central star has never been detected,

because it is heavily shrouded by the bipolar nebula. Emission from the central

region indicates that Eta Carinae houses a binary system with a highly eccentric

5.5 year orbit, which perhaps comprises an evolved star with ~90 Msolar and a

(possibly) a near-main-sequence O star with ~30 Msolar. Among multi-wavelength

observations, X-ray emission varied dramatically with the orbital period,

showing a flux increase around the periastron passage followed by a strong flux

drop by a factor of 100 for three months thereafter. The flux variation is

basically explained by thin-thermal plasma emission produced by the collision of

winds from the two stars (wind-wind collision: WWC), but the cause of the flux

drop is controversial. The two leading hypotheses are an \\\"eclipse\\\" of X-ray

plasma by the thick

primary stellar wind or a collapse of the WWC plasma. Resolving this problem is

important for solving the process of mass loss from massive stars, and in

finding the property of the component stars. We present the latest view of this

enigmatic object, focusing on the X-ray observations around the last periastron

passage in 2003. We also introduce upcoming campaign observations of Eta Carinae

around the next periastron passage in early 2009.

In this talk, we would like to introduce how to describe

wave turbulence for nonlinearly and wealky interacting

despersive wave ensemble such as Hasselmann\\/s approach,

smooth cumulant method, random phase approximation,

and random phase and amplitude formalism which has been

developed most lately. And we also introduce recent

development in wave turbulence theory and application

to Alfven wave.

CoRoT is a 27cm space telescope in a polar orbit that is capable of making
ultra-precise photometric measurements of stars continuously for up to
a maximum of 150 days. It has a dual purpose: asteroseismology of up
to 10 bright (V=5-9 mag) stars and the photometric detection of transiting
planets for 12.000 fainter stars (V=11-16 mag). It is the first space mission
dedicated to the detection of extrasolar planets.
It was successfully launched on 27 December 2006 and the telescope is working perfectly.
Since launch CoRoT has been steadily returning light curves of unprecendented quality.
I will give an overview of the current status of the mission and present some recent results,
mostly highlighting the exoplanet discoveries. I will also for present results
from addtional science conducted from the so-called exofield of CoRoT.

옛날 사람들은 물의 흐름을 이용하여 시간을 쟀는데 이것이 물시계의 시초다.

물시계는 해시계와 더불어 사용되었지만, 밤낮으로 시간을 알아내는 데는

물시계가 더 쓸모가 있어 동아시아를 비롯한 대부분의 문화권에서는 표준시계로

사용되었다. 조선 세종은 위정자의 임무의 하나인 관상수시를 제대로 실현하기

위해 조선의 실정에 맞는 수시(授時)제도를 갖추도록 여러 가지 정책을 세우고

구체적인 사업에 착수하였다. 그리고 그와 아울러 천문관측의 필요성을 느껴

그 일환으로 간의대를 만들고, 간의와 규표, 시보를 위한 보루각, 해시계 등의

여러 천문기구들을 제작, 설치하였다. 그 중의 하나가 자격루이다. 자격루는

물시계 시스템을 비롯하여 아날로그/디지털 변환기(방목-동판), 에너지

증폭기구(철환방출기구), 12시 시보장치(時機), 경점 시보장치(更點機) 등으로

이루어진 복합 시스템이다. 동아시아 전통의 3단 유입식(流入式) 물시계 기술과,

13세기 아랍에서 제작된 시계에서 아이디어를 얻은 시보장치의 기술, 그리고

한국 전래 기술의 융합으로 탄생된 자격루는 우리 풍토와 전통을 대변하는

한국성(韓國性)과 아울러 세계로 열린 보편성을 지닌 창의적인 발명품이다.

그러나 이렇게우리 역사는 물론, 15세기 동아시아 시계기술사, 오토메이션(자동화)과

로보틱스 역사의 한 장을 장식한 자격루이지만, 아쉽게도 1866년 병인양요의

와중에 소실되어 자격루 설계도는 전해오지 못하게 되었다. 지난 30년 동안

우리의 얼굴인 만 원권 지폐 속에 살아온 ‘물시계’는 세종 자격루의 후신이다.

이「보루각기」속의 자격루가 573년 만에 그 진면목을 우리 앞에 드러냈고,

연구를 시작한지 23년이라는 기나 긴 여정을 거친 후인 지난 2007년 11월말에

복원되었다. 이번 발표에서는 세종시대의 왕성했던 의표사업과 아울러 새로

복원한 자격루의 시스템과 복원과정을 설명하면서 한국의 전통과학기구들을

살펴보고자 한다.

If ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) originate from extragalactic
sources, understanding the propagation of the charged particles through
the magnetized large scale structure (LSS) of the universe is crucial
in the search for astrophysical accelerators. Adopting a novel model
based on turbulent dynamo, the strength of the intergalactic magnetic
field is estimated from local dynamic properties of the gas flows in
hydrodynamic simulations of a concordance LCDM universe. With
the model magnetic field, the deflection angle and time delay are
calculated for protons with $E > 10^{19}$ eV propagating through the
large scale structure of the universe, as well as the energy loss due
to interactions with cosmic background radiation. Implications of this
study on the origin of UHECRs will be discussed.

Metal-poor stars in our Galaxy are the best preserved fossils of the formation history of Our Galaxy.

Especially, chemical composition of them provides important clues to understanding the early stage of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy.

Recently, our knowledge of the Galactic formation improved based on kinematic and chemical information of the halo stellar component.

I\\/ll talk on the recent interesting results including our results from BOES data.

Add to that I\\/ll briefly introduce surveys such as Skymapper, SEGUE, LAMOST and HERMES.

I will present a summary of recent results from the Spitzer Legacy science program,
the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (FEPS, http://feps.as.arizona.edu).
FEPS program samples 328 sun-like systems (0.7 Msun - 2.2 Msun) in age ranging from
3 Myr to 3 Gyr. We trace the evolution of circumstellar dust from primordial
planet-building stages in young circumstellar disks through to older collisionally
generated debris disks. Our goal is to help define the timescales over which
terrestrial and gas giant planets are built, constrain the frequency of planetesimal
collisions as a function of time, and establish the diversity of mature planetary
architectures. The FEPS team has obtained spectro-photometric observations for
all our sample stars using all three science instruments (IRAC, IRS, MIPS) aboard
the Spitzer Space Telescope from 3.6 micron to 70 micron. I will review recent
FEPS results including: 1) complete census of 70 micron-bright debris disks;
2) constraints on dissipation of primordial disks in terrestrial planet zones
around stars younger than 30 Myr; and 3) properties and evolution of circumstellar
dust around 314 solar-type stars.

Massive stars are fundamental in determining the appearance and evolution of galaxies. For studying the Galactic rotation curve and earlier phase of massive star forming process, three massive star forming regions are selected. The Galactic rotation curve can be constrained with the rotation speed of stars and gas because massive stars and their associated molecular clouds trace the spiral arms of The Galaxy. I will introduce the VERA system and the results of the first astrometric observations toward three massive star forming regions. And, by using the results of the measurements of parallaxes and proper motions, constrain the rotation curve of outer galactic plane and discuss about earlier phase of stellar evolution in massive star forming regions.

NGC 5044 Group is one of the brightest Galaxy Groups in X-rays. Due to its proximity (redshift=0.0087), it has been studied extensively in X-rays and in other wavebands. To trace the Dark Matter (DM) Profile of this interesting group down to the core, the high-resolution Chandra data had been used. However, its field-of-view is limited to the central region (r<100 kpc). To better constrain the DM profile from the core up to a radius of 250 kpc, a Chandra-ROSAT simultaneous analysis had been performed. Within 250 kpc, the total mass is found to be ~1.6 x 1013 solar mass, 12% of which comes from baryons (gas and stars) while 88% presumably comes from dark matter. Within the inner central regions, the total mass profile exhibits a double structure, typical for groups containing a central Dominant (cD) galaxy. The onset of this double structure seems to signify likely interface between stellar-dominated and DM-dominated regimes. For NGC 5044, this interface occur around 7.5 kpc. Beyond this radius, DM dominates the total mass. The DM profile is reasonably fitted with the popular NFW model yielding results consistent with observed scatter expected for Cold Dark Matter (CDM) halos. A Power-law fit to the DM profile gives α=1.88+0.32. This slope is within the observed range, but is significantly larger than that of Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies and self-interacting DM halos.

The US National Space Weather Program (NSWP) refers “Space Weather” to “conditions
on the Sun and in the solar wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere that can
influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological
systems and can endanger human life or health.”
One of the basic research areas that were specified to have significant gaps in our
present understanding and represent particular challenges in achieving Space Weather
goals is forecast of the evolution of ionospheric irregularities.
The nighttime electron density irregularities in the low-latitude F region cause
the most severe radio scintillation affecting the satellite communication and
navigation systems. Understanding of the onset conditions of the irregularities and
forecasting of this phenomenon have been the top research priority since its discovery.
While the electron density irregularities are known to be produced by the Rayleigh-Taylor
instability, the day-to-day variability of their occurrence and dependence on the
longitude, season, solar cycle, and magnetic activity were not yet clearly understood.
In this talk, we will overview the characteristics of the low-latitude ionospheric
turbulence and discuss the recent progresses and future work.

In this talk, we review the three-dimensional evolution of the solar
wind density and speed distributions in the inner heliosphere. The
primary solar wind data used in this study has been obtained from the
interplanetary scintillation (IPS) measurements made at the Ooty Radio
Telescope, which is capable of measuring scintillation of a large number
of radio sources per day and solar wind estimates along different cuts
of the heliosphere, allow to image the three-dimensional structure of
the ambient solar wind and propagating transients (CMEs or CIRs) in the
Sun-Earth distance range. Results indicate that (1) the interaction
between the CME (or the CIR) and the background solar wind determines
the radial evolution of its speed and size, (2) the magnetic energy
associated with the propagating transient (the magnetic cloud in the
case of a CME and the high-speed stream for a CIR) is likely to play
a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of the compression
and propagation characteristics of the disturbance. Ooty studies play
a key role in quantifying the drag force imposed on disturbances by
the solar wind interaction, which is essential in modeling the
propagation characteristics of disturbances within 1-AU heliosphere.
Such studies also have a great importance in understanding the
prediction of CME/CIR-associated space weather at near-Earth space.

The observational studies of high redshift universe seem dominated by large telescopes,
but small telescopes (1-2 m class telescopes) are still making important contributions
to understand the high redshift universe, out to z ~ 6.
I will review our observational studies of high redshift universe using 1-2m class telescopes
such as the KASI\/s Mt. Lemmon 1-m telescope, Bohyunsan Observatory\/s 1.8-m telescope,
the Maidanak observatory\/s 1.5-m telescope, and the 68cm AKARI space telescope.
The studies carried out with these telescopes cover various topics such as the gamma-ray
burst afterglow, bright quasars, star-forming galaxies and AGNs, and high redshift quasars.
Along with these findings, I will present exclusive photos of the passage to the Uzbekistan\/s
Maidanak observatory.

Radio galaxies continue to play an important role in cosmological debates.

They are hosted by massive elliptical galaxies, and their high luminosities

allow them to be detected across a large range in redshift.

In this colloquium I will describe results from an investigation into the

properties of the warm ionized gas in the interstellar medium of radio galaxies

at high-z (z>2). We find evidence that this warm ionized gas is in infall towards

the AGN or host galaxy. Some implications will be discussed.

Results based on a systematic analysis of the durations for Swift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are gotten and compared with those of pre-Swift data. For 95 GRBs with known redshift, we show that the observed durations have two log-normal distributions that are clearly divided at 2 seconds. This is consistent with the earlier BATSE results. The intrinsic durations also show a bimodal distribution but shift systematically towards the smaller value compared with the observed one. We find that the intrinsic distributions of long GRBs obtained with Swift and pre-Swift (or BATSE) are significantly different, particularly in the distribution centers. Our present study confirms the spectra of short GRBs are in general harder than the long GRBs and shows that this trend becomes weak in the source frame.

현재 건국대학교의 R&D 추진 조직에 대한 설명과 대학이 추진 및 진행
중인 산학연 협력R&D의 방향과 미래계획 등에 대해 설명하고 건국대학교와
한국천문연구원 간에 상호협력 할 수 있는 세부분야에 대한 계획 등을 제안한다.

It has long been known that our universe is expanding, but recent Type Ia supernovae observations have demonstrated that the expansion is accelerating. Current cosmological models attribute this acceleration to a form of repulsive “dark energy”. The simplest explanation of dark energy is Einstein’s cosmological constant found in his original field equations; more exotic alternatives would demand radically new physics. In this talk, I will describe the largest ever galaxy survey undertaken of the distant universe that utilizes the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signature seen in the clustering of galaxies to precisely measure the dark energy equation of state and hence test whether dark energy can be described by Einstein’s cosmological constant model. Called the “WiggleZ” survey, it is using the powerful two degree field multi-object spectrograph AAOmega on the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope to obtain spectra and measure redshifts for up to 500,000 galaxies in the range 0.5

This lecture begins with the fundamental reasons for a nation to undertake planetary exploration. Expected benefits to Korea is discussed. Then the current status of Korea\\\\\\\\/s readiness for planetary exploration is described. The case for Korean lunar mission and Mars mission are made. The recently-signed agreement between KAIST and NASA on lunar exploration is elaborated on. Finally, what was done to Korean Mars mission concept, and what could be actually done in the future, are discussed.

Magnetospheric substorms are considered to be one of the major energy release processes as a consequence of the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere. The interaction is known to sensitively depend on the direction and magnitude of the north-south component of the interplanetary magnetic field that the solar wind brings together. Substorms are manifested by sudden auroral brightening due to particle precipitation along magnetic field, energetic charged particle generation, ULF magnetic pulsation excitation, abrupt changes of the magnetospheric magnetic field, and magnetic reconnection. One of the intriguing features of substorms is that they sometimes occur quasi-periodically with a period of ~1-3 hrs. This is commonly observed when corotating high-speed solar streams lasting several days impinge upon the magnetosphere. The high-speed streams accompany large amplitude Alfvenic fluctuations of the interplanetary magnetic field, leading to alternating polarities between north and south, which may be responsible for the repetitive substorms. Interestingly,

we have recently found that quasi-periodic substorms do also occur even when the interplanetary magnetic field is purely northward for which the magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause is hardly expected to occur. Also, substorm features are seen for sawtooth-type quasi-periodic oscillations of energetic particle injections under prolonged southward conditions of the accompanied interplanetary magnetic field. The fact that such diverse interplanetary conditions lead to quasi-periodic substorms poses a real mystery to substorm scientists. This talk will introduce our recent effort to follow up a clue to the mystery.

We have measured the annual parallax of the Mira-type variable star UX Cygni to be (pi) = 0.54 +/- 0.06 mas from phase-referencing VLBI observations of its circumsteller water masers with the VLBA. This is the first parallax from water maser observations. These are also the pilot observations for VERA (VLBI Exploration for Radio Astrometry) project in Japan, which measure the parallaxes and proper motions of galactic maser sources to reveal the three-dimensional structure of the Galaxy.



Four epoch monitoring observations of water masers around the Mira-type star UX Cygni are carried out. The motions of maser spots referred to the position of phase-referencing source show the common annual parallax and proper motions of each spots. From the least-square fitting, the annual parallax is 0.54 +/- 0.06 mas. The corresponding distance is 1.85 (+0.25/-0.19) kpc. This result is consistent with the period-luminosity relation

(PLR) of Mira-type variables in P > 420 days. From this result and the PLR of Large Magellanic Cloud, we can derive the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud to be

55.0 (+9.0/-7.2) kpc, which is consistent to the values from other methods. We can also get the three-dimensional position and velocity in the Galaxy. These results show

the possibility of astrometric observations with phase-referencing VLBI and research into galactic kinematics which is one of the big target of the VERA.

see attached file, please

Magnetic energy release via field line reconnections is believed to be a major fundamental process in space and astrophysical environments, ranging from accretion disks, flare stars, the sun to the heliosphere and the earth magnetosphere. It is, however, only through solar flare images that we can see direct signatures for the magnetic reconnection. This talk will review recent progresses toward quantitative measurements of the reconnection efficiency using solar images as carried out by NJIT solar group. In most cases, we could utilize the standard two-dimensional reconnection model to derive the reconnection electric field, electric potential and electromagnetic Poynting flux, and thus ultimately the energy release rate during solar flares. In a few exceptional cases, however, we found shortcomings of the two-dimensional model due to the complexity of magnetic topologies, for which we suggest a simple three-dimensional generalization.

We describe a multidimensional relativistic hydrodynamic code which
solves the special relativistic hydrodynamic equations as a hyperbolic
system of conservation laws based on the total variation diminishing
scheme. Three-dimensional hydrodynamic interactions of relativistic
extragalactic jets with two-phase ambient media are presented.

Within the last decade, our notions of the cosmos have been radically altered by precision

observations of the light from distant Type Ia supernovae and, separately, the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation [CMBR]. These show that the expansion of the

universe is actually accelerating, and that the Universe is overwhelmingly composed of dark

energy (75%) and dark matter (21%), with only 4% of the total being baryonic (“normal”) matter.

Determining the amount and characteristics of dark matter, dark energy, and normal matter is one of the most compelling problems in astrophysics today. A complementary and independent

approach to determine the baryonic matter density is to compare the predictions of the

abundances of “primordial” light elements (H, He, Li) formed three minutes after the Big Bang with observations of these elements in the interstellar medium and on the surface of very old stars.

“Big Bang Nucleosynthesis” (BBN) calculations require, as input, thermonuclear reaction rates at the high temperatures characteristic of the early universe. BBN estimates of the 2H, 4He, and 7Li abundances imply a baryonic matter density that, respectively, agrees, marginally agrees, and disagrees with the density from other approaches.

The precision of the BBN constraint on the baryonic matter density depends on the uncertainties

in observational determinations of primordial 2H, 4He, and 7Li abundances, as well as on

uncertainties in BBN abundance predictions derived from input nuclear physics uncertainties [1].

We have performed new Monte Carlo BBN simulations wherein all input reaction rate

uncertainties are reduced to their smallest reasonable limit in order to determine the “ultimate”

precision of the BBN baryonic matter constraint given current observational uncertainties: 21%,

41%, and 39%, using (respectively) 2H, 4He, and 7Li. The uncertainties in abundance

determinations must be significantly reduced to give the BBN constraint a precision approaching that of the 3.5% precision derived from WMAP observations of the CMBR [2]. Comparisons of the constraints from these two complementary methods are important because they can indicate, and constrain, potential new physics.

We have also performed simulations where individual rate uncertainties are systematically

reduced to determine the impact that future nuclear physics measurements would have on the

abundance uncertainties and the baryonic matter constraint. We find that the neutron lifetime and the rates of a number of reactions all deserve further scrutiny. Results of the simulations and their implications for cosmology and for future nuclear physics measurements will be presented. These calculations were all performed with the new online suite of codes freely available at

bigbangonline.org.

[1] M.S. Smith, L.H. Kawano, R.A. Malaney, Astrophys. J. Suppl. 85 (1993) 219.

[2] D.N. Spergel et al., Astrophys. J. Suppl. 170 (2007) 377.

* Managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S.D.O.E. under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725

First Pop III stars are believed to form inside minihalos (T<10^4 K)

with the help of hydrogen molecule (H_2) cooling. H_2, however, is

easily dissociated by H_2 Lyman-Werner band photons, which can originate

from sources in cosmological distance. We calculate the build-up of this

H_2 dissociating background during the epoch of reionization, based upon

the recent cosmic reionization simulation results. We show that (1) H_2

dissociating background builds up long before the end of cosmic

reionization and (2) due to the clustering of sources of reionization,

the resultant background shows a significant spatial fluctuation. This

would lead to a spatial variation of the formation of Pop III objects.

The observational perspective (e.g. JWST observation) of our result is

also presented.

운석은 태양계의 물질로서 지구나 화성등과 같이 완전한 행성진화과정을 겪지 않은 물질이다. 따라서, 운석중에 나타나는 화학성분들은 태양계 초기의 기록에 가까우며 이중 특히 분화를 거의 겪지 않은 원시운석들은 태양계의 나이, 원소분포 등에 대한 귀중한 정보를 갖고 있다.
또한, 운석은 다양한 종류의 운석과 월석, 화성운석에서 나타나는 여러 가지 다른 기원을 갖는 가스 성분들은 태양계 초기의 기록뿐 아니라 지구와 같은 행성의 진화과정에 대한 단서를 제공한다.