This study investigates the integration of astronomy-related topics in the Korean national science curricula spanning from 1945 to 2023. We analyze the placement and extent of astronomy content across different school levels. Astronomy contents in the science curricula have changed in response to social needs (e.g., practical knowledge required for agriculture and fishery) and advancement in astronomical research (e.g., the discovery of exoplanets and the suggestion of new cosmological parameters). Contents addressing the motions of celestial objects and stellar physical properties have remained relatively consistent. In the latest 2022 revised national curriculum, scheduled for implementation in 2024, several elements, such as coordinate systems, have been removed, while the inquiry activities using digital tools are emphasized. The incorporation of the cosmic perspectives in the national curriculum, as well as astronomy education within the context of education for sustainable development, remains limited even in the most recent curriculum. For future life revisions, the active participation of researchers is needed to reflect the latest astronomical research progress and scientific characteristics in the field of astronomy.

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 Pvar . 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.

대부분의 중·고등학교가 도심지에 위치하며 사용할 수 있는 천문 관측 장비에 제한이 있다는 점을 고려하여 DSLR 카메라와 교육용 소형 망원경을 결합하여 도심지 밤하늘 밝기를 측정하였다. DSLR 카메라의 다양한 설정은 ISO 설정 외에는 원본 파일에 영향을 주지 않았으며, 필터 변환까지 고려한 일반적인 측광 정밀도는 대략 0.1 등급이다. 밤하늘 밝기는 천정 부근의 경우 B, V, r 필터에서 각각 약 17.5, 17.1, 16.9 mag arcsec−2으로 측정되었다. 이를 통해 도심지의 대략적인 한계등급은 B 필터에서 17.5 등급, V와 r 필터에서 17등급으로 추정할 수 있다. 관측지점과 가까운 대규모 인공 조명은 고도와 필터에 무관하게 밤하늘 밝기를 약 0.6 mag arcsec−2 증가시킴으로써 관측 환경을 악화시키는 주요인으로 나타났다.