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1. Progress on the Development of Astronomy,
Polar Science and Space Science in Thailand
1
Boonrucksar Soonthornthum, NARIT
2 March 2018
SE Asia Galaxy Forum 2018

2. National Astronomical Research Institute
of Thailand
Established since 1 January 2009
under the Ministry of Science and Technology
2

3. NARIT’s Headquarter “Princess Sirindhorn AstroPark”
@ 260 Moo 4, Donkaew, Mae Rim District, Chiang Mai (22 acres)
Functions
• Main Administration Office of NARIT
• Advanced Research Laboratories: High Performance Computing,
Optics, Radio Frequencies
• Workshops: High Precision Machining, Mechatronics, Mirror
Coating
• Observatory and Planetarium for Public

4. NARIT’s Key Sciences
1. Impact from Space: The first key science deals with investigating how
space weather affects the upper atmosphere, as well as how the upper
atmosphere affects the lower atmosphere and vice versa. It also aims to
study the effect of man on earth’s climate.
2. Understanding Physics of the Universe: The key science comprises
several fields in stellar physics, including the study of the extremes of the
Universe (i.e. gamma ray burst, compact objects) and the study of stellar
evolutionary process. A few highlighted research topics in this key
science are: variable stars and binary systems, star formation, and stellar
population study.
3. Exoplanets and Astrobiology: The key science focuses on the search for
new exoplanets using various observational techniques, the study of the
physical properties of exoplanets and the understanding of planetary
formation, the exploration of the earth-like exoplanets with habitable
zone and clues of lives outside the Solar system.
4. Understanding the Origin of the Cosmos: The key science focuses on
the key questions of modern cosmology and physics: What causes the
late-time accelerated expansion of the Universe? What is the Dark
Matter? And how do the large-scale structures (e.g. galaxies, groups and
clusters of galaxies) form and evolve?

5. NARIT’s Major Infrastructures

6. NARIT’s
Astronomy
Infrastructure

7. Thai National Observatory,
2.4-m Thai National Telescope, TNT

8. Major Instruments
• ULTRASPEC
• 4k x 4k CCD Camera
• Medium Resolution
Spectrograph (MRES)

9. Thai Remote Telescope Network (TRTN)
Cerro Tololo
Inter-American
Observatory
(CTIO)
Republic of
Chile
Gao Mei Gu Observatory,
Lijiang, P.R. of China
Sierra Remote Observatory,
California, U.S.A.
Springbrook Observatory,
Queensland, Australia
GOTO Project at La Palma
Canary Island, Spain

10. High Performance Computer cluster
Hardware (”Chalawan” Cluster)
 1 Management node (12 cores, 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon E5-26xx v3)
 19 compute nodes (rack + Blade servers)
• CPU 496 cores (@ 2.6GHz clock speed)
• Memory 2.2TB
• Infiniband FDR 56Gbps interconnect
• 2 Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessors (112 cores @ 1.2GHz)
 Storage: Lustre 90TB over IB FDR
 Rpeak= 22 TeraFLOPS

11. National Network on Radio Astronomy and Geodesy

12. NARIT’s 40-meter Radio Telescope
- `Updated’ version of IGN’s
40m Yebes Radio Telescope
- 40m Diameter with Parabolic
Surface, Cassegrain-Nasmyth
optics
- total surface accuracy<200 um
(rms)
- Slew: 3 m/s in Azimuth , 1 m/s
in Vertical
- Pointing: 2” (no wind),
6” (5 m/s wind)
- Prime-focus receiver
mechanism

13. Yebes, 23 March 2017
Thailand-China Collaboration on
VLBI Geodesy under “One Belt’ One
Road” policy of Chinese’s government
NARIT’s 13m VGOS (VLBI
Global Observing System) antenna for
a very precise plate tectonic
measurement
13m VGOS Zelenchukskaya (RU) 13m VGOS GGAO (US)

14. NARIT-NAOC MoU April 5 2017
14
FAST Radio Telescope

15. Astronomyand Atmospheric
Science inthe PolarRegion

16. Astronomy at Polar Region
Polar region (Arctic/Antarctic Plateau) is
a perfect place for astronomical observations
due to its
- Long and continuous 6 months dark clear
winter sky
- Stable atmospheric condition with
excellent sky seeing
We can do the long-term, unbroken and
continuous monitoring of various types of
celestial objects eg: binary stars, variable
stars, exoplanets, transient phenomena,
exploding stars ect. Also the investigations of
the aurora phenomena on earth.

18. HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s visits to China
18
MoU Signing with Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC)
6 April 2016

19. NARIT’s Antarctic Research Topics (Under
PRIC-NARIT Collaboration
1. Exo-planets/ Exo-earths Detection
2. Variable Stars, Transient Phenomena
3. Stellar Seismology: Vibrations of
stars/Starquakes
4. Growth of Supermassive Black Holes and Co-
evolution of Host Galaxies
5. Pipeline development for wide-field photometry
6. A cooperation on the construction of a 1-meter
telescope for spectroscopy in Antarctic
7. Astronomical and upper atmosphere physical
instruments operated at Chinese Stations

20. Join Bright Stars Survey Telescope (BSST)
Project at Zhongshan Station, Antarctica, 2016
(30 cm aperture, 3.4ºx 3.4º Field of View)
TEST in April-May 2015)

21. Collaboration with East Asian Observatory
(EAO)
21
NARIT, as the IAU Southeast Asia Regional
Office of Astronomy for Development, has
been invited as one of the member institutes
of the EAO. NARIT is now working in
collaboration with EAO under an the
Memorandum of Agreement between the 2
institutes (September 2017). The EAO
currently operates the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope (JCMT), which is the largest
single dish telescope to operate at
submillimeter wavelengths. The 15-meter
telescope is located on the summit of Mauna
Kea in Hawaii. The EAO operates the JCMT
on behalf of the University of Hawaii since
1st March 2015.

22. Terahertz Astronomy
22
We are interested in using the Terahertz (THz)
observations of interstellar atoms, molecules,
and dust serve as powerful probes of the
conditions within the interstellar medium that
permeates newly formed distant galaxies in
the early universe which can be well detected
in terahertz frequencies.

23. The Study on Close Binary Systems
Evolutionary stages of close binary
systems can be study through different
classes:
• Detached binaries
• Semi-detached binaries
• Contact binaries
• Low mass ratio deep contact
binaries
• Binary mergers: Such binary
mergers are likely to be
responsible for many eruptive
events in the Galaxy (e.g., V838
Mon; Tylenda & Soker 2006)
• Luminous Red Novae (LRN)

24. Search for the progenitor of LRNs by AST3-1
 Yunnan Observatories and NARIT has
long been cooperated on the research of
eclipsing binary stars
 AST3-1 is the second-generation wide
field optical photometric telescope at
Dome A
 285 eclipsing binaries (including EW,
EB, and EA-types) were observed in the
Galactic Disk (e.g., Wang et al. 2017)
 Search for the progenitors of LRNe
(deep and low-mass ratio contact
systems).

25. It is discovered that AST7302 is a contact
binary with the lowest mass ratio 0.067
• i=15.38 mag.
• P=0.37218 days
• T1=5400 K
• i = 75.5
• f = 13.0 %
• q=0.067
They are the progenitor candidates of Luminous red
novae

26. The “Thai Robotic Network” in Chile and Australia
Participation of Thai Robotic Telescopes
on Antarctic Astronomy
Cerro Tololo
60-cm
Lijiang
70-cm
AAT
70-cm

27. Thai Atmospheric Science Research
The study of “Impact from
space” deals with investigating
how space weather affects the
upper atmosphere, as well as
how the upper atmosphere
affects the lower atmosphere
and vice versa.

28. Thai Space Consortium
To build Thai capability (human, facilities &
Infrastructure) for development of Thai research
Satellites
CONSORTIUM’s GOAL
NARIT’s
GOAL
To build NARIT capability (human, facilities &
Infrastructure) for design and construction of mission
payloads (instruments) which are in line with NARIT’s
instrumentation direction

29. Payload
Satellite
platform
Test
facilities
The Development of
Satellites' Payloads for
Earth/Space Observation
Test Facility for Earth and
Space Observation Satellite
Satellite
Development for
Space Research
Phase 1 (2018): Prep
& feasibility study
Phase 2 (2019):
Payload development
Phase 3 (2020):
Platform
development & test
Phase 4 (2021):
AIT & test
Phase 5 (2022):
Launch &
commissioning
Roles

30. Research Satellite
 upgrade research by utilizing Satellite
 unlock the unsolved research problems and support data mining inside
and outside of the country.
 research integration and sharing the resources among organization
 built confidence and awareness in using and developing satellite and
space technology in Thailand
Long term target
 develop small and medium size satellite (100-300kg) with cheap and quick to specify
research (Custom made satellite for research)
 open opportunity for competition, develop research capability to develop satellite for
new missions
 realize and sustain the growth of satellite and space technology
 support new immerging industries and business for expansion of economic and
society.
To solve problems addressed in
 20 years National Research and Innovation
Strategy plan
 2017-2026 Space Strategy plan
 5 years S&T Strategy plan (2018-2022)

31. Space Technology Development
Communications
Planetary exploration
Navigation
Meteorology
Earth
observation
 Atmospheric Science
 Climate Change
 Space Environment/Weather
 Methane Detection
Potential Mission:
Research