Developing Experimental Method of Real-time Data Transfer and Imaging using Astronomical Observations for Scientific Inquiry Activities

Previous Earth Science textbooks have mostly lacked the latest astronomical phenomena frequently being reported in mass media such as popular science magazines. One of the main directions in the revision of the 2009 National Curriculum of Korea is to actively include those phenomena. Furthermore, despite a close link between astronomy and physics, the concept of modern physics has not been actively introduced in Earth Science textbooks and at the same time the linkage of physics to astronomy has rarely been studies in physics textbooks. Therefore, the concept of integration among different fields in science is emphasized in the new National Curriculum. Transient phenomena in the high energy astrophysical objects are examples that reflect such issue. The purpose of this study is to introduce transferring a real-time data and making imaging of astronomical observations using e-Science. As a first step, we performed the first experiment for a large data transfer of astronomical observation between Korea and Japan using KOREN, a National Research and Education Test Network. We introduce actively on-going fields of e-Science in observational activities of astronomy and astrophysics, and their close interrelationship with scientific inquiry activities and public outreach activities. We discuss our experiment in the scientific and educational aspects to the primitive e-Science activity in the Korean astronomical society and, in turn, provide a prospective view for its application to the scientific inquiry activities and public outreach activities in the upcoming commercial Gbps-level internet environments.