Notice:
Due to the conversion of some ACS WFC or HRC observations into
WFPC2,
or NICMOS observations after the loss of ACS CCD science
capability
in January, there may be an occasional discrepancy between a
proposal's
listed (and correct) instrument usage and the abstract that
follows
it.
HUBBLE
SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science
DAILY
REPORT # 4431
PERIOD
COVERED: UT August 21, 2007 (DOY 233)
OBSERVATIONS
SCHEDULED
NIC1/NIC2/NIC3
8794
NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 5
A
new procedure proposed to alleviate the CR-persistence problem of
NICMOS.
Dark frames will be obtained immediately upon exiting the SAA
contour
23, and every time a NICMOS exposure is scheduled within 50
minutes
of coming out of the SAA. The darks will be obtained in parallel
in
all three NICMOS Cameras. The POST-SAA darks will be non- standard
reference
files available to users with a USEAFTER date/time mark. The
keyword
'USEAFTER=date/time' will also be added to the header of each
POST-SAA
DARK frame. The keyword must be populated with the time, in
addition
to the date, because HST crosses the SAA ~8 times per day so
each
POST-SAA DARK will need to have the appropriate time specified, for
users
to identify the ones they need. Both the raw and processed images
will
be archived as POST-SAA DARKs. Generally we expect that all NICMOS
science/calibration
observations started within 50 minutes of leaving an
SAA
will need such maps to remove the CR persistence from the science
images.
Each observation will need its own CRMAP, as different SAA
passages
leave different imprints on the NICMOS detectors.
NIC2
11219
Active
Galactic Nuclei in nearby galaxies: a new view of the origin of
the
radio-loud radio- quiet dichotomy?
Using
archival HST and Chandra observations of 34 nearby early-type
galaxies
{drawn from a complete radio selected sample} we have found
evidence
that the radio-loud/radio-quiet dichotomy is directly connected
to
the structure of the inner regions of their host galaxies in the
following
sense: [1] Radio-loud AGN are associated with galaxies with
shallow
cores in their light profiles [2] Radio-quiet AGN are only
hosted
by galaxies with steep cusps. Since the brightness profile is
determined
by the galaxy's evolution, through its merger history, our
results
suggest that the same process sets the AGN flavour. This
provides
us with a novel tool to explore the co-evolution of galaxies
and
supermassive black holes, and it opens a new path to understand the
origin
of the radio-loud/radio-quiet AGN dichotomy. Currently our
analysis
is statistically incomplete as the brightness profile is not
available
for 82 of the 116 targets. Most galaxies were not observed
with
HST, while in some cases the study is obstructed by the presence of
dust
features. We here propose to perform an infrared NICMOS snapshot
survey
of these 82 galaxies. This will enable us to i} test the reality
of
the dichotomic behaviour in a substantially larger sample; ii} extend
the
comparison between radio-loud and radio-quiet AGN to a larger range
of
luminosities.
NIC3
11082
NICMOS
Imaging of GOODS: Probing the Evolution of the Earliest Massive
Galaxies,
Galaxies Beyond Reionization, and the High Redshift Obscured
Universe
Deep
near-infrared imaging provides the only avenue towards
understanding
a host of astrophysical problems, including: finding
galaxies
and AGN at z > 7, the evolution of the most massive galaxies,
the
triggering of star formation in dusty galaxies, and revealing
properties
of obscured AGN. As such, we propose to observe 60 selected
areas
of the GOODS North and South fields with NICMOS Camera 3 in the
F160W
band pointed at known massive M > 10^11 M_0 galaxies at z > 2
discovered
through deep Spitzer imaging. The depth we will reach {26.5
AB
at 5 sigma} in H_160 allows us to study the internal properties of
these
galaxies, including their sizes and morphologies, and to
understand
how scaling relations such as the Kormendy relationship
evolved.
Although NIC3 is out of focus and undersampled, it is currently
our
best opportunity to study these galaxies, while also sampling enough
area
to perform a general NIR survey 1/3 the size of an ACS GOODS field.
These
data will be a significant resource, invaluable for many other
science
goals, including discovering high redshift galaxies at z > 7,
the
evolution of galaxies onto the Hubble sequence, as well as examining
obscured
AGN and dusty star formation at z > 1.5. The GOODS fields are
the
natural location for HST to perform a deep NICMOS imaging program,
as
extensive data from space and ground based observatories such as
Chandra,
GALEX, Spitzer, NOAO, Keck, Subaru, VLT, JCMT, and the VLA are
currently
available for these regions. Deep high-resolution
near-infrared
observations are the one missing ingredient to this
survey,
filling in an important gap to create the deepest, largest, and
most
uniform data set for studying the faint and distant universe. The
importance
of these images will increase with time as new facilities
come
on line, most notably WFC3 and ALMA, and for the planning of future
JWST
observations.
WFPC2
10901
UV-Luminous
Globular Clusters in NGC 1399
Ultraviolet
observations have revealed remarkable diversity among old
stellar
populations in globular clusters and E/S0 galaxies. We recently
discovered
with HST/STIS that globular clusters in the giant elliptical
galaxy
M87 have the most heavily populated hot horizontal branches of
any
stellar systems yet studied. Their far-UV/optical colors are up to 1
mag
bluer than any Milky Way globular cluster and approach the
theoretical
limits for production of hot-HB stars in old stellar
populations.
The differences among the metal-poor clusters are
particularly
interesting, because it is thought that these objects
reflect
the earliest stages of galaxy formation at high redshifts. Here
we
propose deep ACS far-UV imaging of a second gE galaxy, NGC 1399, with
a
cluster system that is well-studied at longer wavelengths, to
determine
whether it shares characteristics with M87. These observations
bear
on aspects of advanced stellar evolution, on the histories of
globular
clusters in different environments, and on the interpretation
of
the "ultraviolet upturn'' phenomenon in elliptical galaxies and its
value
as a population probe in distant galaxies.
WFPC2
11031
CTE
Background Dependence Closeout
Measuring
the charge transfer efficiency {CTE} of an astronomical CCD
camera
is crucial to determining the CCD's photometric fidelity across
the
field of view. WFPC2's CTE has degraded steadily over the last 13
years
because of continuous exposure to trapped particles in HST's
radiation
environment. The fraction of photometric signal lost from
WFPC2's
CTI {charge transfer inefficiency} is a function of WFPC2's time
in
orbit, the integrated signal in the image, the location of the image
on
the CCD, and the background signal. Routine monitoring of WFPC2's CTE
over
the last 13 years permits an assessment of all but the last
condition.
The dependence of CTE on background signal must be
characterized,
however, because a large fraction of WFPC2 images have
been
obtained under conditions of significant sky background. This
program
aims to assess the end-of-life CTE of WFPC2's CCDs separately as
a
function of background signal. Traditional images of an off-center
field
in NGC 5139 {Omega Cen} are recorded after preflashing {or before
postflashing}
the CCDs with internal lamps to provide average background
signals
of 0-160 e-, which span the range of sky backgrounds observed in
~99%
of long-exposure narrow- and broad-band WFPC2 images.
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)
SCHEDULED
SUCCESSFUL
FGS
GSacq
06
06
FGS
REacq
08
08
OBAD
with Maneuver 28
28
SIGNIFICANT
EVENTS: (None)