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============================================================================== TOPIC: Daily Report #5197
http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/f89df5466b81bb17?hl=en
== 1 of 1 == Date: Thurs, Oct 7 2010 7:09 am From: "Cooper, Joe"
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science
DAILY REPORT #5197
PERIOD COVERED: 8:00pm October 5 - 7:59pm October 6, 2010 (DOY 279/00:00z-279/23:59z)
FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:
Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be investigated )
HSTARS:
12457 - GSAcq(2,3,3) at 279/15:10:26z resulted in fine lock back-up on FGS2
Observations possibly affected WFC3 39-40, Proposal ID#11905
COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)
COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)
Scheduled Successful
FGS GSAcq 7 7 FGS REAcq 8 8 OBAD with Maneuver 4 4
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)
OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED:
ACS/WFC 11996
CCD Daily Monitor (Part 3)
This program comprises basic tests for measuring the read noise and dark current of the ACS WFC and for tracking the growth of hot pixels The recorded frames are used to create bias and dark reference images for science data reduction and calibration This program will be executed four days per week (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) for the duration of Cycle 17 To facilitate scheduling, this program is split into three proposals This proposal covers 308 orbits (19 25 weeks) from 21 June 2010 to 1 November 2010
ACS/WFC3 11734
The Hosts of High Redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts
Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosive events known, acting as beacons to the high redshift universe Long duration GRBs have their origin in the collapse of massive stars and thus select star forming galaxies across a wide range of redshift Due to their bright afterglows we can study the details of GRB host galaxies via absorption spectroscopy, providing redshifts, column densities and metallicities for galaxies far too faint to be accessible directly with current technology We have already obtained deep ground based observations for many hosts and here propose ACS/WFC3 and WFC3 observations of the fields of bursts at z>3 which are undetected in deep ground based images These observations will study the hosts in emission, providing luminosities and morphologies and will enable the construction of a sample of high-z galaxies with more detailed physical properties than has ever been possible before
COS/NUV/FUV 12178
Spanning the Reionization History of IGM Helium: a Highly Efficient Spectral Survey of the Far-UV-Brightest Quasars
The reionization of IGM helium likely occurred at redshifts of z=3 to
4
Detailed studies of HeII Ly-alpha absorption toward a handful of
quasars at 2
7 COS/NUV/FUV/WFC3/UV 12248 How Dwarf Galaxies Got That Way: Mapping Multiphase Gaseous Halos and
Galactic Winds Below L* One of the most vexing problems in galaxy formation concerns how gas
accretion and feedback influence the evolution of galaxies
In high
mass galaxies, numerical simulations predict the initial fuel is
accreted through 'cold' streams, after which AGN suppress star
formation to leave galaxies red and gas-poor
In the shallow potential
wells that host dwarf galaxies, gas accretion can be very efficient,
and "superwinds" driven either by hot gas expelled by SNe or momentum
imparted by SNe and hot-star radiation are regarded as the likely
source(s) of feedback
However, major doubts persist about the physics
of gas accretion, and particularly about SN-driven feedback, including
their scalings with halo mass and their influence on the evolution of
the galaxies
While "superwinds" are visible in X-rays near the point
of their departure, they generally drop below detectable
surface-brightness limits at ~ 10 kpc
Cold clumps in winds can be
detected as blue-shifted absorption against the galaxy's own
starlight, but the radial extent of these winds are difficult to
constrain, leaving their energy, momentum, and ultimate fate
uncertain
Wind prescriptions in hydrodynamical simulations are
uncertain and at present are constrained only by indirect
observations, e
g
by their influence on the stellar masses of
galaxies and IGM metallicity
All these doubts lead to one conclusion:
we do not understand gas accretion and feedback because we generally
do not observe the infall and winds directly, in the extended gaseous
halos of galaxies, when it is happening
To do this effectively, we
must harness the power of absorption-line spectroscopy to measure the
density, temperature, metallicity, and kinematics of small quantities
of diffuse gas in galaxy halos
The most important physical
diagnostics lie in the FUV, so this is uniquely a problem for HST and
COS
We propose new COS G130M and G160M observations of 41 QSOs that
probe the gaseous halos of 44 SDSS dwarf galaxies well inside their
virial radii
Using sensitive absorption-line measurements of the
multiphase gas diagnostics Lya, CII/IV, Si II/III/IV, and other
species, supplemented by optical data from SDSS and Keck, we will map
the halos of galaxies with L = 0
02 - 0
3 L*, stellar masses M* =
10^(8-10) Msun, over impact parameter from 15 - 150 kpc
These
observations will directly constrain the content and kinematics of
accreting and outflowing material, provide a concrete target for
simulations to hit, and statistically test proposed galactic superwind
models
These observations will also inform the study of galaxies at
high z, where the shallow halo potentials that host dwarf galaxies
today were the norm
These observations are low-risk and routine for
COS, easily schedulable, and promise a major advance in our
understanding of how dwarf galaxies came to be
FGS 11298 Calibrating Cosmological Chronometers: White Dwarf Masses We propose to use HST/FGS1R to determine White Dwarf {WD} masses
The
unmatched resolving power of HST/FGS1R will be utilized to follow up
four selected WD binary pairs
This high precision obtained with
HST/FGS1R simply cannot be equaled by any ground based technique
This
proposed effort complements that done by CoI Nelan in which a sample
of WDs is being observed with HST/FGS1R
This proposal will
dramatically increase the number of WDs for which dynamical mass
measurements are possible, enabling a better calibration of the WD
mass-radius relation, cooling curves, initial to final mass relations,
and ultimately giving important clues to the star formation history of
our Galaxy and the age of its disk as well as in other galaxies
{This
project is part of Subasavage's PhD thesis work at Georgia State
University
} STIS/CCD 11845 CCD Dark Monitor Part 2 Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD
STIS/CCD 11847 CCD Bias Monitor-Part 2 Monitor the bias in the 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 bin settings at gain=1,
and 1x1 at gain = 4, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the
evolution of hot columns
WFC3/IR 12184 A SNAP Survey for Gravitational Lenses Among z~6 Quasars We propose a SNAP imaging survey of a complete sample of 54 quasars at
5
7 < z < 6
4 using HST/WFC3-IR to quantify the prevalence of strongly
lensed quasars at z~6
Gravitational lensing magnification bias,
boosted by the observed steep luminosity function of high-redshift
quasars, strongly suggest that lenses should be common amongst the
highest-redshift quasars known
However, the highest redshift strongly
lensed quasar known is only at z=4
8; but among the 59 quasars known
at z>5
9, only five have been imaged with HST
Our HST images will be
sensitive to the multiple images of lensed quasar, even at small
separations and large flux ratios
Based on the current best estimate
of the quasar luminosity function, we expect to discover 2-9 strongly
lensed quasars in our entire sample, or 1-4 for the nominal SNAP
completion rate of 40%
This program will likely discover the first
quasar lenses at z~6, enabling detailed follow-up observations to
constrain lensing models, to study quasar host galaxy properties and
to probe the small-scale structure of the IGM
The measurement of or
upper limit on the lensing fraction will strongly constrain the bright
end of the quasar luminosity function, leading to important
constraints on models of quasar evolution and allowing us to better
quantify the quasar contribution to the reionization photon budget
WFC3/IR 12217 Spectroscopy of Faint T Dwarf Calibrators: Understanding the
Substellar Mass Function and the Coolest Brown Dwarfs More than 100 methane brown dwarfs, or T dwarfs, have now been
discovered in the local field with 2MASS, SLOAN and UKIDSS, opening up
a new area of physics describing objects at 450-1400 K
However, very
few calibrator objects exist with well established ages and
metallicities
A very surprising result from the UKIDSS sample
(supported by 2MASS and SLOAN) is that the substellar mass function in
the local field appears to decline to lower masses, in marked contrast
to the rising initial mass function (IMF) observed in young clusters
Given that such a difference between the present day IMF and the
Galactic time-averaged IMF is unlikely, it is very possible that the
apparently falling IMF is an artifact of serious errors in either T
model atmospheres or the evolutionary isochrones
We propose WFC3
spectroscopy of 4 faint T dwarf calibrators with well established ages
and metallicities in the Pleiades and Sigma Ori clusters, and 2 faint
field T dwarfs from UKIDSS for comparison
These spectra will
constitute vital calibration data for T dwarf atmospheres with a wide
range of surface gravities, which will be used to test and improve the
model atmospheres
They will also aid preparation for future
spectroscopy of the much larger numbers of field T dwarfs to soon be
found by VISTA and WISE
These new surveys will permit a more precise
measurement of the mass function and detection of even cooler objects
WFC3/IR 12283 WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel Survey (WISP): A Survey of Star
Formation Across Cosmic Time We will use the unique power of WFC3 slitless spectroscopy to measure
cosmic star formation across its peak epoch
The broad, continuous,
spectral coverage of the G102 and G141 grisms provides the best
currently feasible measurement of the star formation rate continously
from 0
5 Our primary science goals are: (1) Measure ratios of bright emission
lines ([OII], [OIII], Ha, and Hb) in a substantial fraction of these
galaxies, thereby estimating dust and metallicity evolution in a
sample of galaxies that is not biased by photometric selection
(2)
Derive an extinction-corrected Ha luminosity function, with a 20 times
larger sample than our previous NICMOS results
(3) Measure the
mass-metallicity relation at crucial intermediate redshifts, with the
support of our ongoing ground-based, follow-up, observing program (4)
Determine the spectroscopic close pair fraction in this sample, in
order to constrain hierarchal merging models (5) Uncover a new sample
of obscured AGN at these redshifts and, (6) Use the Balmer break
diagnostic to constrain the ages of continuum detected sources down to
H = 25
As a bonus, these observations will be sensitive to Lya emission at
z>5
5, taking advantage of continuous spectral coverage to observe
large volumes for luminous galaxies at the highest redshifts
Over
Cycles 17 and 18, we expect to detect 5-20 LAEs over redshifts
spanning 5
5 < z < 7
5
These observations will likely place the most
stringent constraint on the numbers of z>6
5 Lya emitters until JWST
We are waiving all proprietary rights to our data and will make
high-level data products available through the ST/ECF
WFC3/IR 12286 Hubble Infrared Pure Parallel Imaging Extragalactic Survey (HIPPIES) WFC3 has demonstrated its unprecedented power in probing the early
universe
Here we propose to continue our pure parallel program with
this instrument to search for LBGs at z~6--8
Our program, dubbed as
the Hubble Infrared Pure Parallel Imaging Extragalactic Survey
("HIPPIES"), will carry on the HST pure parallel legacy in the new
decade
We request 205 orbits in Cycle-18, which will spread over ~ 50
high Galactic latitude visits (|b|>20deg) that last for 3 orbits and
longer, resulting a total survey area of ~230 square arcmin
Combining
the WFC3 pure parallel observations in Cycle-17, HIPPIES will
complement other existing and forthcoming WFC3 surveys, and will make
unique contributions to the study in the new redshift frontier because
of the randomness of the survey fields
To make full use of the
parallel opportunities, HIPPIES will also take ACS parallels to study
LBGs at z~5--6
Being a pure parallel program, HIPPIES will only make
very limited demand on the scarce HST resources, but will have
potentially large scientific returns
As in previous cycle, we waive
all proprietary data rights, and will make the enhanced data products
public in a timely manner
(1) The WFC3 part of HIPPIES aims at the most luminous LBG population
at z~8 and z~7
As its survey fields are random and completely
uncorrelated, the number counts of the bright LBGs from HIPPIES will
be least affected by the "cosmic variance", and hence we will be able
to obtain the best constraint on the bright-end of the LBG luminosity
function at z~8 and 7
Comparing the result from HIPPIES to the
hydrodynamic simulations will test the input physics and provide
insight into the nature of the early galaxies
(2) The z~7--8
candidates from HIPPIES, most of which will be the brightest ones that
any surveys would be able to find, will have the best chance to be
spectroscopically confirmed at the current 8--10m telescopes
(3) The
ACS part of HIPPIES will produce a significant number of candidate
LBGs at z~5 and z~6 per ACS field
Combining with the existing,
suitable ACS fields in the HST archive, we will be able to utilize the
random nature of the survey to quantify the cosmic variance and to
measure the galaxy bias at z~5--6, and therefore the galaxy halo
masses at these redshifts
(4) We will also find a large number of
extremely red, old galaxies at intermediate redshifts, and the fine
spatial resolution offered by the WFC3 will enable us constrain their
formation history based on the study of their morphology, and hence
shed light on their connection to the very early galaxies in the
universe
WFC3/UV 12019 After the Fall: Fading AGN in Post-starburst Galaxies We propose joint Chandra and HST observations of an extraordinary
sample of 12 massive post-starburst galaxies at z=0
4-0
8 that are in
the short-lived evolution phase a few 100 Myr after the peak of
merger-driven star formation and AGN activity
We will use the data to
measure X-ray luminosities, black hole masses, and accretion rates;
and with the accurate "clocks" provided by post-starburst stellar
populations, we will directly test theoretical models that predict a
power-law decay in the AGN light curve
We will also test whether star
formation and black hole accretion shut down in lock-step, quantify
whether the black holes transition to radiatively inefficient
accretion states, and constrain the observational signatures of black
hole mergers
WFC3/UV 12345 UVIS Long Darks Test Darks during SMOV showed a systematically lower global dark rate as
well as lower scatter when compared to the Cycle 17 darks
Those two
sets of exposures differ in exposure time - 1800 sec during SMOV and
900 sec during Cycle 17
Hypothetically, the effect could be caused by
short-duration stray light, say ~500-sec in duration
During the
latter part of Cycle 17, operation of WFC3 was changed to additionally
block the light path to the detector with the CSM
This program
acquires a small number of darks at the longer SMOV exposure times
(1800 sec) in order to check whether the effect repeats in the new
operating mode
WFC3/UVIS 11905 WFC3 UVIS CCD Daily Monitor The behavior of the WFC3 UVIS CCD will be monitored daily with a set
of full-frame, four-amp bias and dark frames
A smaller set of 2Kx4K
subarray biases are acquired at less frequent intervals throughout the
cycle to support subarray science observations
The internals from
this proposal, along with those from the anneal procedure (Proposal
11909), will be used to generate the necessary superbias and superdark
reference files for the calibration pipeline (CDBS)
==============================================================================
TOPIC: Daily Report #5198 == 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Oct 8 2010 9:47 am
From: "Cooper, Joe" HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT #5198 PERIOD COVERED: 8pm October 6 - 7:59pm October 7, 2010 (DOY 280/00:00z-280/23:59z) FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY: Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary
reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be
investigated
) HSTARS: (None) COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None) COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None) FGS GSAcq 11 11
FGS REAcq 07 07
OBAD with Maneuver 08 08 SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED: ACS/WFC 12209 A Strong Lensing Measurement of the Evolution of Mass Structure in
Giant Elliptical Galaxies The structure and evolution of giant elliptical galaxies provide key
quantitative tests for the theory of hierarchical galaxy formation in
a cold dark matter dominated universe
Strong gravitational lensing
provides the only direct means for the measurement of individual
elliptical galaxy masses beyond the local universe, but there are
currently no large and homogeneous samples of strong lens galaxies at
significant cosmological look-back time
Hence, an accurate and
unambiguous measurement of the evolution of the mass-density structure
of elliptical galaxies has until now been impossible
Using
spectroscopic data from the recently initiated Baryon Oscillation
Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of luminous elliptical galaxies at
redshifts from approximately 0
4 to 0
7, we have identified a large
sample of high-probability strong gravitational lens candidates at
significant cosmological look-back time, based on the detection of
emission-line features from more distant galaxies along the same lines
of sight as the target ellipticals
We propose to observe 45 of these
systems with the ACS-WFC in order to confirm the incidence of lensing
and to measure the masses of the lens galaxies
We will complement
these lensing mass measurements with stellar velocity dispersions from
ground-based follow-up spectroscopy
In combination with similar data
from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey at lower redshifts, we will
directly measure the cosmic evolution of the ratio between lensing
mass and dynamical mass, to reveal the structural explanation for the
observed size evolution of elliptical galaxies (at high mass)
We will
also measure the evolution of the logarithmic mass-density profile of
massive ellipticals, which is sensitive to the details of the merging
histories through which they are assembled
Finally, we will use our
lensing mass-to-light measurements to translate the BOSS galaxy
luminosity function into a mass function, and determine its evolution
in combination with data from the original Sloan Digital Sky Survey
ACS/WFC 12210 SLACS for the Masses: Extending Strong Lensing to Lower Masses and
Smaller Radii Strong gravitational lensing provides the most accurate possible
measurement of mass in the central regions of early-type galaxies
(ETGs)
We propose to continue the highly productive Sloan Lens ACS
(SLACS) Survey for strong gravitational lens galaxies by observing a
substantial fraction of 135 new ETG gravitational-lens candidates with
HST-ACS WFC F814W Snapshot imaging
The proposed target sample has
been selected from the seventh and final data release of the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey, and is designed to complement the distribution of
previously confirmed SLACS lenses in lens-galaxy mass and in the ratio
of Einstein radius to optical half-light radius
The observations we
propose will lead to a combined SLACS sample covering nearly two
decades in mass, with dense mapping of enclosed mass as a function of
radius out to the half-light radius and beyond
With this longer mass
baseline, we will extend our lensing and dynamical analysis of the
mass structure and scaling relations of ETGs to galaxies of
significantly lower mass, and directly test for a transition in
structural and dark-matter content trends at intermediate galaxy mass
The broader mass coverage will also enable us to make a direct
connection to the structure of well-studied nearby ETGs as deduced
from dynamical modeling of their line-of-sight velocity distribution
fields
Finally, the combined sample will allow a more conclusive test
of the current SLACS result that the intrinsic scatter in ETG
mass-density structure is not significantly correlated with any other
galaxy observables
The final SLACS sample at the conclusion of this
program will comprise approximately 130 lenses with known foreground
and background redshifts, and is likely to be the largest confirmed
sample of strong-lens galaxies for many years to come
COS/NUV/FUV 12178 Spanning the Reionization History of IGM Helium: a Highly Efficient
Spectral Survey of the Far-UV-Brightest Quasars The reionization of IGM helium likely occurred at redshifts of z=3 to
4
Detailed studies of HeII Ly-alpha absorption toward a handful of
quasars at 2
7 COS/NUV/FUV 12299 Spectroscopic Signatures of Binary and Recoiling Black Holes We propose to obtain UV the spectra of the Ly-alpha and Mg II lines of
13 SDSS quasars whose H-beta lines are offset by 1000-4000 km/s from
their systemic redshifts
Such lines have been suggested to originate
in recoiling or close binary black holes
However these
interpretations are not unique and UV spectroscopy, possible only with
the HST, can discriminate between competing possibilities
Identifying
such systems is extremely important in the context of scenarios for
galaxy formation and evolution and in view of recent predictions from
numerical relativity
Close binary black holes represent an apparently
inevitable stage in the merger of two massive galaxies
The subsequent
merger of the members of the binary is expected to produce a recoiling
black hole in some fraction of cases
Thus, the census of such
systems, their environments, and hosts can constrain some of the more
uncertain parameters in evolutionary models
But before we can find
them in any numbers, we need to evaluate the candidates known so far
This is the goal of our proposal
COS/NUV/FUV/WFC3/UV 12248 How Dwarf Galaxies Got That Way: Mapping Multiphase Gaseous Halos and
Galactic Winds Below L* One of the most vexing problems in galaxy formation concerns how gas
accretion and feedback influence the evolution of galaxies
In high
mass galaxies, numerical simulations predict the initial fuel is
accreted through 'cold' streams, after which AGN suppress star
formation to leave galaxies red and gas-poor
In the shallow potential
wells that host dwarf galaxies, gas accretion can be very efficient,
and "superwinds" driven either by hot gas expelled by SNe or momentum
imparted by SNe and hot-star radiation are regarded as the likely
source(s) of feedback
However, major doubts persist about the physics
of gas accretion, and particularly about SN-driven feedback, including
their scalings with halo mass and their influence on the evolution of
the galaxies
While "superwinds" are visible in X-rays near the point
of their departure, they generally drop below detectable
surface-brightness limits at ~ 10 kpc
Cold clumps in winds can be
detected as blue-shifted absorption against the galaxy's own
starlight, but the radial extent of these winds are difficult to
constrain, leaving their energy, momentum, and ultimate fate
uncertain
Wind prescriptions in hydrodynamical simulations are
uncertain and at present are constrained only by indirect
observations, e
g
by their influence on the stellar masses of
galaxies and IGM metallicity
All these doubts lead to one conclusion:
we do not understand gas accretion and feedback because we generally
do not observe the infall and winds directly, in the extended gaseous
halos of galaxies, when it is happening
To do this effectively, we
must harness the power of absorption-line spectroscopy to measure the
density, temperature, metallicity, and kinematics of small quantities
of diffuse gas in galaxy halos
The most important physical
diagnostics lie in the FUV, so this is uniquely a problem for HST and
COS
We propose new COS G130M and G160M observations of 41 QSOs that
probe the gaseous halos of 44 SDSS dwarf galaxies well inside their
virial radii
Using sensitive absorption-line measurements of the
multiphase gas diagnostics Lya, CII/IV, Si II/III/IV, and other
species, supplemented by optical data from SDSS and Keck, we will map
the halos of galaxies with L = 0
02 - 0
3 L*, stellar masses M* =
10^(8-10) Msun, over impact parameter from 15 - 150 kpc
These
observations will directly constrain the content and kinematics of
accreting and outflowing material, provide a concrete target for
simulations to hit, and statistically test proposed galactic superwind
models
These observations will also inform the study of galaxies at
high z, where the shallow halo potentials that host dwarf galaxies
today were the norm
These observations are low-risk and routine for
COS, easily schedulable, and promise a major advance in our
understanding of how dwarf galaxies came to be
STIS/CCD 11845 CCD Dark Monitor Part 2 Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD
STIS/CCD 11847 CCD Bias Monitor-Part 2 Monitor the bias in the 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 bin settings at gain=1,
and 1x1 at gain = 4, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the
evolution of hot columns
WFC3/IR 12283 WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel Survey (WISP): A Survey of Star
Formation Across Cosmic Time We will use the unique power of WFC3 slitless spectroscopy to measure
cosmic star formation across its peak epoch
The broad, continuous,
spectral coverage of the G102 and G141 grisms provides the best
currently feasible measurement of the star formation rate continuously
from 0
5 Our primary science goals are: (1) Measure ratios of bright emission
lines ([OII], [OIII], Ha, and Hb) in a substantial fraction of these
galaxies, thereby estimating dust and metallicity evolution in a
sample of galaxies that is not biased by photometric selection
(2)
Derive an extinction-corrected Ha luminosity function, with a 20 times
larger sample than our previous NICMOS results
(3) Measure the
mass-metallicity relation at crucial intermediate redshifts, with the
support of our ongoing ground-based, follow-up, observing program (4)
Determine the spectroscopic close pair fraction in this sample, in
order to constrain hierarchal merging models (5) Uncover a new sample
of obscured AGN at these redshifts and, (6) Use the Balmer break
diagnostic to constrain the ages of continuum detected sources down to
H = 25
As a bonus, these observations will be sensitive to Lya emission at
z>5
5, taking advantage of continuous spectral coverage to observe
large volumes for luminous galaxies at the highest redshifts
Over
Cycles 17 and 18, we expect to detect 5-20 LAEs over redshifts
spanning 5
5 < z < 7
5
These observations will likely place the most
stringent constraint on the numbers of z>6
5 Lya emitters until JWST
We are waiving all proprietary rights to our data and will make
high-level data products available through the ST/ECF
WFC3/IR/S/C 11929 IR Dark Current Monitor Analyses of ground test data showed that dark current signals are more
reliably removed from science data using darks taken with the same
exposure sequences as the science data, than with a single dark
current image scaled by desired exposure time
Therefore, dark current
images must be collected using all sample sequences that will be used
in science observations
These observations will be used to monitor
changes in the dark current of the WFC3-IR channel on a day-to-day
basis, and to build calibration dark current ramps for each of the
sample sequences to be used by Gos in Cycle 17
For each sample
sequence/array size combination, a median ramp will be created and
delivered to the calibration database system (CDBS)
WFC3/IR/UV 12163 Structure and Stellar Content of the Nearest Nuclear Clusters in
Late-Type Spiral Galaxies HST surveys have shown that nuclear star clusters are nearly
ubiquitous in late-type, bulgeless disk galaxies
In early-type
galaxies, the central black hole mass correlates with the bulge mass
and velocity dispersion, but the relationship between black hole mass
and host galaxy properties in bulgeless galaxies is not yet
understood
Some nuclear clusters (such as the one in M33) do not
contain a central massive black hole at all, while other late-type
galaxies (such as NGC 4395) are known to contain accretion-powered
active nuclei within their nuclear clusters, indicating that a central
black hole is present
But, the overall "occupation fraction" of black
holes within nuclear clusters is largely unconstrained
Measurement of
the structure, dynamics, and stellar content of nuclear star clusters
is an important pathway toward understanding the demographics of
low-mass black holes in late-type galaxies
We propose to obtain multi-filter WFC3 UV, optical, and near-IR images
of 10 of the nearest and brightest nuclear clusters in late-type
spiral galaxies
We will use the new WFC3 data to measure the cluster
radial profiles, to search for color gradients, and in combination
with ground-based spectroscopy and stellar population modeling, to
determine the stellar masses of the clusters
Since nuclear clusters
are known to contain stellar populations with a wide range of ages,
the broad wavelength coverage of our data will provide new leverage to
constrain the star formation history of the clusters
We will carry
out dynamical modeling for the clusters, using the cluster structural
parameters and stellar M/L ratios measured from the WFC3 data and
kinematics measured from ground-based, adaptive-optics assisted
integral-field spectroscopy (already obtained or approved for 8 of the
10 targets)
This will yield tight new constraints on the masses of
intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH) within the clusters, and may
result in the first dynamical detections of IMBHs in the nuclei of
late-type spirals
WFC3/UV 12215 Searching for the Missing Low-Mass Companions of Massive Stars Recent results on binary companions of massive O stars appear to
indicate that the distribution of secondary masses is truncated at low
masses
It thus mimics the distribution of companions of G dwarfs and
also the Initial Mass Function (IMF), except that it is shifted upward
by a factor of 20 in mass
These results, if correct, provide a
distribution of mass ratios that hints at a strong constraint on the
star-formation process
However, this intriguing result is derived
from a complex simulation of data which suffer from observational
incompleteness at the low-mass end
We propose a snapshot survey to test this result in a very direct way
HST WFC3 images of a sample of the nearest Cepheids (which were
formerly B stars of ~5 Msun) will search for low-mass companions down
to M dwarfs
We will confirm any companions as young stars, and thus
true physical companions, through follow-up Chandra X-ray images
Our
survey will show clearly whether the companion mass distribution is
truncated at low masses, but at a mass much higher than that of the
IMF or G dwarfs
WFC3/UV 12245 Orbital Evolution and Stability of the Inner Uranian Moons Nine densely-packed inner moons of Uranus show signs of chaos and
orbital instability over a variety of time scales
Many moons show
measureable orbital changes within a decade or less
Long-term
integrations predict that some moons could collide in less than one
million years
One faint ring embedded in the system may, in fact, be
the debris left behind from an earlier such collision
Meanwhile, the
nearby moon Mab falls well outside the influence of the others but
nevertheless shows rapid, as yet unexplained, changes in its orbit
It
is embedded within a dust ring that also shows surprising variability
A highly optimized series of observations with WFC3 over the next
three cycles will address some of the fundamental open questions about
this dynamically active system: Do the orbits truly show evidence of
chaos? If so, over what time scales? What can we say about the masses
of the moons involved? What is the nature of the variations in Mab's
orbit? Is Mab's motion predictable or random? Astrometry will enable
us to derive the orbital elements of these moons with 10-km precision
This will be sufficient to study the year-by-year changes and,
combined with other data from 2003-2007, the decadal evolution of the
orbits
The pairing of precise astrometry with numerical integrations
will enable us to derive new dynamical constraints on the masses of
these moons
Mass is the fundamental unknown quantity currently
limiting our ability to reproduce the interactions within this system
This program will also capitalize upon our best opportunity for nearly
40 years to study the unexplained variations in Uranus's faint outer
rings
WFC3/UV 12324 The Temperature Profiles of Quasar Accretion Disks We can now routinely measure the size of quasar accretion disks using
gravitational microlensing of lensed quasars
At optical wavelengths
we observe a size and scaling with black hole mass roughly consistent
with thin disk theory but the sizes are larger than expected from the
observed optical fluxes
One solution would be to use a flatter
temperature profile, which we can study by measuring the wavelength
dependence of the disk size over the largest possible wavelength
baseline
Thus, to understand the size discrepancy and to probe closer
to the inner edge of the disk we need to extend our measurements to UV
wavelengths, and this can only be done with HST
For example, in the
UV we should see significant changes in the optical/UV size ratio with
black hole mass
We propose monitoring 5 lenses spanning a broad range
of black hole masses with well-sampled ground based light curves,
optical disk size measurements and known GALEX UV fluxes during Cycles
17 and 18 to expand from our current sample of two lenses
We would
obtain 5 observations of each target in each Cycle, similar to our
successful strategy for the first two targets
WFC3/UV 12345 UVIS Long Darks Test Darks during SMOV showed a systematically lower global dark rate as
well as lower scatter when compared to the Cycle 17 darks
Those two
sets of exposures differ in exposure time - 1800 sec during SMOV and
900 sec during Cycle 17
Hypothetically, the effect could be caused by
short-duration stray light, say ~500-sec in duration
During the
latter part of Cycle 17, operation of WFC3 was changed to additionally
block the light path to the detector with the CSM
This program
acquires a small number of darks at the longer SMOV exposure times
(1800 sec) in order to check whether the effect repeats in the new
operating mode
WFC3/UVIS 11905 WFC3 UVIS CCD Daily Monitor The behavior of the WFC3 UVIS CCD will be monitored daily with a set
of full-frame, four-amp bias and dark frames
A smaller set of 2Kx4K
subarray biases are acquired at less frequent intervals throughout the
cycle to support subarray science observations
The internals from
this proposal, along with those from the anneal procedure (Proposal
11909), will be used to generate the necessary superbias and superdark
reference files for the calibration pipeline (CDBS)
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