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 # 4470
PERIOD
COVERED: UT October 17, 2007 (DOY 290)
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.
NIC3
11082
NICMOS
Imaging of GOODS: Probing the Evolution of the Earliest Massive
Galaxies,
Galaxies Beyond Reionization, and the High Redshift Obscured
Universe
(uses
ACS/SBC and WFPC2)
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
11141
White
dwarfs in the open star cluster NGC 188
White
dwarf cooling sequences represent the only ways in which we can
determine
ages of Galactic components such as the disk and the halo, and
they
are an independent check on main sequence ages of globular star
clusters.
These age measurements rely heavily on theoretical cooling
models,
many of which disagree by as much as a few gigayears for the
coolest
white dwarfs. Further, observations of the white dwarf sequence
in
the super metal- rich open cluster NGC 6791 have found a white dwarf
age
several gigayears younger than the accepted cluster age determined
by
main-sequence fitting. The white dwarf sequence of the
solar-metallicity,
7-Gyr old open cluster NGC 188 can provide some
much-needed
insight into these uncertainties, but previous HST
observations
were too shallow to detect the oldest, faintest white
dwarfs
in the cluster. We propose deep imaging of two fields at the
center
of the cluster with the following goals: {1} To detect the end of
the
white dwarf cooling sequence, providing a much-needed empirical data
point
for cool white dwarf evolutionary models, {2} to compare the white
dwarf
luminosity function of NGC 188 with that of NGC 6791 to determine
if
the odd white dwarf sequence in the latter cluster is due to the
cluster's
high metallicity or due to a shortcoming in theoretical
models,
and {3} to determine via photometry the masses of white dwarfs
formed
by solar-mass stars, a quantity not yet empirically measured.
WFPC2
11296
HST
Observations of Astrophysically Important Visual Binaries
This
is a continuation of a project begun in Cycle 7 and continued up
through
Cycle 14. The program consists of annual FGS or WFPC2
observations
of three visual binary stars that will yield fundamental
astrophysical
results, once their orbits and masses are determined. Our
targets
are the following: {1} Procyon {P = 40.9 yr}, for which our
first
WFPC2 images yielded an extremely accurate angular separation of
the
bright F star and its much fainter white-dwarf companion. Combined
with
ground-based astrometry of the bright star, our observation
significantly
revised downward the derived masses, and brought Procyon A
into
much better agreement with theoretical evolutionary masses for the
first
time. With the continued monitoring proposed here, we will obtain
masses
to an accuracy of better than 1%, providing a testbed for
theories
of both Sun-like stars and white dwarfs. {2} G 107-70, a close
double
white dwarf {P = 18.5 yr} that promises to add two accurate
masses
to the tiny handful of white-dwarf masses that are directly known
from
dynamical measurements. {3} Mu Cas {P = 20.8 yr}, a famous nearby
metal-deficient
G dwarf for which accurate masses will lead to the
stars'
helium contents, with cosmological implications. For all three
stars,
we will also be setting increasingly stringent limits on the
presence
of planetary- mass bodies in the systems.
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 04
04
FGS
REacq
09
09
OBAD
with Maneuver
26
26
SIGNIFICANT
EVENTS: (None)