World's first galaxy precision map completed … Heavy stars, galaxies Evolution of secrets

There is a funny legend in the northern sky. Over 30 degrees north latitude is the story of a five-dimensional constellation floating over the year, 'Kepesus'.

Kepesus is the king of ancient Ethiopia (Aethiopia) in Greek mythology. I have been through a lot of hardships because of my vanity Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia, whose daughter was bragging about her daughter, said, "The beauty of my daughter Andromeda is better than the sum of 50 daughters of water nymphaeus," and the anger of the sea god Poseidon is bought. When Poseidon sent a monster whale to drive Ethiopia to the point of extermination, Kepesus had to sacrifice his daughter. Luckily, Andromeda, who almost became a monster's food, rescues Medusa and is rescued by hero Perseus and becomes his wife.

But Poseidon's anger does not stop here, and eventually Cassiopeia hangs upside down to become a constellation and keeps going around the North Pole. Even today, in the northern sky, Cassiopeia, his husband Kepesus, daughter Andromeda, son-in-law Perseus, and monster whales are shining together as constellations.

But it was not only the legend that kept the place of kephaus. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KAIST) announced on March 13 that it has newly discovered a cradle of star formation hidden in the Kepesu area as a multi-purpose infrared imaging system (MIRIS) developed in 2013. It was the first observation that 66 young stars (stars) under 10 million years of age, which correspond to the young age of the universe, are living in the Keepeus area.

Finding a place where a star is born is a mystery in itself, but what does it mean by science? "This discovery helps explain the process of evolution of the galaxy," explains Kim Il-jung, a senior researcher of the Astronomy Group of the Astronomy Astronomy Observatory. Especially, the stars we find are meaningful because they are 'Massive Star', which is massive, more than 15 times the mass of the sun.

Heavy stars are born and die by that mass and have a large impact on the galaxy as a whole. The most representative is the supernova explosion. The heavy stars decorate the end with the energy that the sun will release for 10 billion years at a time. It is supernova. The core of the star contracts and becomes a very small neutron star or a black hole. Heavy stars return oxygen, silicon, and iron to the universe that they have accumulated throughout their lives in this process. Kim Il-jung, a researcher, said, "The heavy star has a great influence on the galaxy itself through this process, so observing these stars is a good clue to see how our galaxy has changed chemically and morphologically."

The MIRIS telescope, launched in November of Science and Technology Satellite No. 3, played a big role in revealing the secret of Kepesus. The Isaac Newton terrestrial telescope, which has been observing galaxies on the ground, has looked into the unseen area. Using this technique, he succeeded in producing a precise map of our galaxy using 'Paschen Alpha', the world's first hydrogen spectrum emitted by the stars, from observing a heavy star in Kepesus.

Dr. Jung Woong-seop, who participated in the research, said, "Newton telescopes have used H-alpha, which is relatively short wavelength among the hydrogen spectra, to observe. However, because of the" interstellar extinction "in which wavelengths are absorbed or scattered by various substances in outer space There was a limit, "he explained. However, MIRIS was able to obtain a more precise image by observing the longer wavelength 'Paschen Alpha' in outer space rather than on the ground. Younger stars are formed in large, dense clouds called 'ionospheric zones', which use the hydrogen spectrum from these observations.

MIRIS is known to be able to observe the entire galaxy because it can observe a wider area than NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observing the universe at similar heights. The researchers plan to find more ionizing hydrogen areas in the future, expanding to the whole of the same. Meanwhile, the results of the study were published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, the international authority on astronomy.

Huh Jung Won reporter [email protected]