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Mercury, May/June 1999 Table of Contents

Tae Seog Yoon
Kyungpook National University

Wonyong Han
Korea Astronomy Observatory

Myung Gyoon Lee
Seoul National University

Korea has a long history of astronomical observation records and a wealthy heritage. These range from the drawings of astronomical observations at the tombs of ancient kings to the Korean astronomical almanac, from the oldest existing astronomical observatory in Asia which was built in the seventh century to the most accurate sundial of its time, to the world's oldest whole-sky map, engraved in stone.

Ch'on-Sang-Yul-Cha-Bun-Ya-Ji-Do, a map showing positions of the heavenly bodies in their natural order and their allocated celestial fields. It was engraved on a stone (w122.5 x h211 x d12 cm) in December 1395. The epoch of the stellar positions is estimated to be near the first centruy for the stars with declination less than 50 degrees, and to be near 1395 for stars with declination higher than 50 degrees. Photograph courtesy of Changbom Park.

The culmination of Korean astronomy in history was the period of the Great King Sejong (A.D. 1418-1450) in the Chosun dynasty (A.D. 1392-1910), who led the invention of the most scientific phonetic alphabet, Hangul. He is considered one of the greatest leaders in many respects throughout the whole Korean history of five thousand years. Most importantly, he is also considered the greatest astronomer as well as the greatest scientist ever in Korean history. Many historians of science insist that he was the most prominent astronomer of the fifteenth century in the world. Many of the outstanding astronomical achievements such as the Korean astronomical almanac and the most accurate sundial were made by his lead.

Birth of a New Age

In the late 1980s, five more astronomy-related departments were established almost at the same time. Three of them were at the national universities of Chungnam, Chungbuk, and Kyungpook outside Seoul. Two of them were at private universities: Sejong University, which was named after the Great King Sejong, and Kyunghee University, which owns on its campus the largest optical telescope (0.76 meters) among the universities. The number of faculty members in these newly born astronomy-related departments ranges from three to six. While their histories are relatively quite short compared with Seoul National and Yonsei Universities, their faculties are very enthusiastic in building their programs with education and research.

Besides astronomy-related departments at the seven universities mentioned above, there are also one or two astronomers in the department of earth science education or the department of science education in each of the teachers' colleges, which are primarily focused on producing junior high and high school teachers. These teachers' colleges are contained in most major national universities in each district or province of the country and some private universities. Most of these departments were established in the 1960s and 1970s. Less than fifty astronomy faculty are in colleges. Their research areas are quite diverse: solar physics, Solar System, interplanetary medium, interstellar medium, interacting binary stars, variable stars, stellar evolution, stellar dynamics, stellar fluid dynamics, accretion disks, star clusters, gravitational lensing, extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, instrumentation, and the history of astronomy. Research is often performed by intercollegiate collaboration and also sometimes by international collaboration.

The 1.8 meter reflector at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory. Installation of the telescope was completed in 1996, and now it is regularly used for observation with a CCD camera and a spectograph. Photograph courtesy of Korea Astronomy Observatory.

In recent years, Korean astronomy has been expanding rapidly with the increase of government support for basic sciences, resulting in significant progress. For example, Dr. Changbum Park of the Seoul National University has been trying to make the world's largest cosmological N-body simulations with one billion particles and sub-galactic resolution. Some preliminary results came out in 1998.

The Role of the National Observatory

In the Korean astronomical community, the national astronomy observatory shares a leading role in research with universities. The Korea Astronomy Observatory (KAO) is located at Taeduk Science Complex in Taejon, a city about 150 km south of Seoul. It was founded in 1974 and now consists of about fifty astronomers and fifty other people including engineers, technicians, and supporting personnel. It runs three local observatories: Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory (TRAO) at the headquarters of the KAO, Sobaeksan Astronomy Observatory (SAO) in the central area of South Korea, and Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO) in the southeast part of the country.

The TRAO has a 14 meter millimeter-wave telescope, enclosed in a 20 meter radome. It is designed for multi-frequency operation from micro- to short-millimeter-wavelengths. The 14 meter telescope is a facility open for use by researchers in the field of radio astronomy and astrophysics. The main fields of research are dark clouds, SiO masers, supernova remnants, and Galactic anticenter CO surveys. The SAO is the very first modern astronomical observatory in Korea, established in 1978, with a 0.61 meter Boller and Chivens reflector, which has been actively engaged in research on interacting binary stars, variable stars, and star clusters so far. The BOAO was recently built at the peak of Mt. Bohyun (altitude 1,124 meters) and began service for regular observations in 1996. It operates two telescopes: a 1.8 meter reflector, currently the largest optical telescope in Korea, and a solar flare telescope. The main astronomical instruments of the 1.8 meter reflector are a 2048 x 2048 CCD camera, a medium dispersion spectrograph, and a speckle camera. The solar flare telescope is a four-channel telescope with three Lyot filter systems. All the telescopes are open to all Korean astronomers in and outside of the KAO based on their observing proposals.

The 14 meter millimeter-wave radio telescope at the Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory. The telescope facility is open for use by researchers in the field of radio astronomy and astrophysics. Photograph courtesy of Korea Astronomy Observatory.

There are several research groups at the KAO: optical/infrared astronomy, radio astronomy, theoretical astronomy, and space science. The current interests of theoretical studies include large-scale structure formation, cosmology, Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, accretion disks or tori, jets, and black holes. The space science group was officially organized very recently to promote space astronomy research based on space observations. This group is trying to be involved in recent major Korean satellite programs, particularly the UV astronomical payload system with a secondary payload of an approximately 800kg Korean Multipurpose Satellite II, which is expected to be launched in the year 2003, in collaboration with other related institutions.

A Future in Space

One of the most significant future works that many astronomers in Korea pay attention to is space astronomy. Some studies are in progress while some are still in the planning stage. We are expecting a series of Korean satellites in the coming decade according to the national development program, and The Korean Astronomical Society and the KAO are planning astronomical satellites and payloads in the near future. In line with this, foreign partners are anticipated for future cooperative opportunities. We are also preparing a large optical telescope project possibly built at a world class observing site overseas for many more observing nights than domestic sites can provide. Also, joining the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Project is a long-cherished desire of Korean astronomers. Several other groups of astronomers are planning to perform their research through international cooperation by the aid of government-supported research foundations.

Night comes to the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory. Photograph courtesy of Korea Astronomy Observatory.

In the last four decades, Korea has risen economically and industrially from the ashes of the Korean civil war to become a country that manufactures more than four million cars every year. The Korean astronomical community has recently grown rapidly as well. There were fewer than ten Ph.D. degrees in astronomy in 1980, but there are more than eighty now. There was no optical telescope larger than 0.4 meters before 1978, but now there is a 1.8 meter optical telescope, a 14 meter radio telescope, and a solar flare telescope. The very recent economic crisis that Koreans are facing could freeze research funds and possibly delay some plans for research and education. However, we are very optimistic about overcoming this crisis in the near future. We have already overcome much more serious difficulties in the past, and we believe a significant amount of investment will be added to astronomy sooner or later.

TAE SEOG YOON is an astronomer in the Department of Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences at Kyungpook National University in South Korea. He can be reached via email at yoonts@kyungpook.ac.kr.

WONYONG HAN is an astronomer at the Korea Astronomy Observatory. His email address is whan@hanul.issa.re.kr.

MYUNG GYOON LEE is an astronomer in the Department of Astronomy at Seoul National University. His email address is mglee@astrog.snu.ac.kr.