Date: March 5th 2010

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Daily Report #5044 - 1 messages, 1 author http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/5165c222edfa4e47?hl=en
Daily Reqort #5045 - 1 messages, 1 author http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/5eff15b56aad3beb?hl=en

============================================================================== TOPIC: Daily Report #5044

http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/5165c222edfa4e47?hl=en

== 1 of 1 == Date: Wed, Mar 3 2010 8:54Â am From: "Cooper, Joe"

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5044

PERIOD COVERED: 5am March 2 - 5am March 3, 2010 (DOY 061/10:00z-062/10:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/SBC/COS/NUV/FUV 11579

The Difference Between Neutral- and Ionized-Gas Metal Abundances in Local Star-Forming Galaxies with COS

The metallicity of galaxies and its evolution with redshift is of paramount importance for understanding galaxy formation Abundances in the interstellar medium (ISM) are typically determined using emission-line spectroscopy of HII regions However, since HII regions are associated with recent SF they may not have abundances typical for the galaxy as a whole This is true in particular for star-forming galaxies (SFGs), in which the bulk of the metals may be contained in the neutral gas It is therefore important to directly probe the metal abundances in the neutral gas This can be done using absorption lines in the Far UV We have developed techniques to do this in SFGs, where the absorption is measured for sightlines toward bright SF regions within the galaxy itself We have successfully applied this technique to a sample of galaxies observed with FUSE The results have been very promising, suggesting in I Zw 18 that abundances in the neutral gas may be up to 0 5 dex lower than in the ionized gas However, the interpretation of the FUSE data is complicated by the very large FUSE aperture (30 arcsec), the modest S/N, and the limited selection of species available in the FUSE bandpass The advent of COS on HST now allows a significant advance in all of these areas We will therefore obtain absorption line spectroscopy with G130M in the same sample for which we already have crude constraints from FUSE We will obtain ACS/SBC images to select the few optimal sightlines to target in each galaxy The results will be interpreted through line-profile fitting to determine the metal abundances constrained by the available lines The results will provide important new insights into the metallicities of galaxies, and into outstanding problems at high redshift such as the observed offset between the metallicities of Lyman Break Galaxies and Damped Lyman Alpha systems

ACS/WFC 11558

Planetary Nebulae, Globular Clusters and Binary Mergers

Four planetary nebulae (PNe) have been found within 130 of the 150 globular clusters (GCs) of our Galaxy This might not seem like many, but stellar evolution predicts that the old populations of these clusters should contain no PN at all! Observations of three of the four GC PNe show them to have peculiar characteristics, possibly indicative of a binary/merger origin In particular two of the three observed GC PNe have masses which correspond to main sequence masses ~2-3 times the clusters' turn-off masses, suggesting mergers of two, or even three stars have taken place One of the three observed PNe is H-deficient, a characteristic exhibited by only 5 out of hundreds of field PNe H-deficient PNe have been associated with binarity As usual, not all parameters for these three PNe are clean indications of their binary origin In an approved cycle 15 ACS/WFI proposal we asked to obtain observations of the only GC PN that has never been observed before at high resolution and whose central star has never been detected, as well as of the one H-deficient GC PN for which only low-quality WFPC2 images exist When ACS stopped working we moved part of the observations to WFPC2 With this proposal we ask to complete our project, by obtaining two ACS/WFI images that could not be efficiently taken with WFPC2 These objects could tip the balance toward a binary interpretation for the GC PNe or make us seriously reconsider our understanding of stellar evolution in old populations

COS/FUV 11895

FUV Detector Dark Monitor

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the FUV detector dark rate by taking long science exposures without illuminating the detector The detector dark rate and spatial distribution of counts will be compared to pre-launch and SMOV data in order to verify the nominal operation of the detector Variations of count rate as a function of orbital position will be analyzed to find dependence of dark rate on proximity to the SAA Dependence of dark rate as function of time will also be tracked

COS/FUV 11897

FUV Spectroscopic Sensitivity Monitoring

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor sensitivity in each FUV grating mode to detect any changes due to contamination or other causes

STIS/CC 11571

A Fundamental Test of Accretion Physics with NGC 4203

The rapid evolution of quasars indicates that supermassive black holes in galaxy nuclei spend most of their time in a relatively quiescent state Studies of nearby galaxies demonstrate that many such black holes are accreting at a low rate, and appear as low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) Theoretical arguments suggest that the mode of accretion onto a central black hole may be very different in LLAGNs as compared to high-luminosity systems The LINER NGC 4203 provides an excellent opportunity to investigate quantitatively the accretion process in a LLAGN, and hence the typical accretion state for a supermassive black hole Cycle 7 STIS data acquired at one position angle reveal double-peaked H-alpha emission in the nucleus that may trace an accretion disk, and spatially resolved emission that places an upper limit on black-hole mass We propose observations with STIS to map the two-dimensional velocity field of the circumnuclear gas disk in the central regions of NGC 4203, in order to measure the black-hole mass This parameter is essential for testing theoretical models of accretion, determining the mass accretion rate, and estimating the radiative efficiency for accreted matter The results will be important for making sense of LLAGNs, and for translating their measured luminosity into accretion rates that trace the growth of black holes This is a resubmission of a proposal that was approved for 5 orbits in Cycle 13 (GO-10191) but never carried out due to the failure of STIS

STIS/CCD 11844

CCD Dark Monitor Part 1

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the darks for the STIS CCD

STIS/CCD 11846

CCD Bias Monitor-Part 1

The purpose of this proposal is to 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

STIS/CCD/MA2 11568

A SNAPSHOT Survey of the Local Interstellar Medium: New NUV Observations of Stars with Archived FUV Observations

We propose to obtain high-resolution STIS E230H SNAP observations of MgII and FeII interstellar absorption lines toward stars within 100 parsecs that already have moderate or high-resolution far-UV (FUV), 900-1700 A, observations available in the MAST Archive Fundamental properties, such as temperature, turbulence, ionization, abundances, and depletions of gas in the local interstellar medium (LISM) can be measured by coupling such observations Due to the wide spectral range of STIS, observations to study nearby stars also contain important data about the LISM embedded within their spectra However, unlocking this information from the intrinsically broad and often saturated FUV absorption lines of low-mass ions, (DI, CII, NI, OI), requires first understanding the kinematic structure of the gas along the line of sight This can be achieved with high resolution spectra of high-mass ions, (FeII, MgII), which have narrow absorption lines, and can resolve each individual velocity component (interstellar cloud) By obtaining short (~10 minute) E230H observations of FeII and MgII, for stars that already have moderate or high- resolution FUV spectra, we can increase the sample of LISM measurements, and thereby expand our knowledge of the physical properties of the gas in our galactic neighborhood STIS is the only instrument capable of obtaining the required high resolution data now or in the foreseeable future

WFC3/IR 11915

IR Internal Flat Fields

This program is the same as 11433 (SMOV) and depends on the completion of the IR initial alignment (Program 11425) This version contains three instances of 37 internal orbits: to be scheduled early, middle, and near the end of Cycle 17, in order to use the entire 110-orbit allocation

In this test, we will study the stability and structure of the IR channel flat field images through all filter elements in the WFC3-IR channel Flats will be monitored, i e to capture any temporal trends in the flat fields and delta flats produced High signal observations will provide a map of the pixel-to-pixel flat field structure, as well as identify the positions of any dust particles

WFC3/UVIS 11908

Cycle 17: UVIS Bowtie Monitor

Ground testing revealed an intermittent hysteresis type effect in the UVIS detector (both CCDs) at the level of ~1%, lasting hours to days Initially found via an unexpected bowtie-shaped feature in flatfield ratios, subsequent lab tests on similar e2v devices have since shown that it is also present as simply an overall offset across the entire CCD, i e , a QE offset without any discernable pattern These lab tests have further revealed that overexposing the detector to count levels several times full well fills the traps and effectively neutralizes the bowtie Each visit in this proposal acquires a set of three 3x3 binned internal flatfields: the first unsaturated image will be used to detect any bowtie, the second, highly exposed image will neutralize the bowtie if it is present, and the final image will allow for verification that the bowtie is gone

WFC3/UVIS 12018

Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Sources in the Most Metal-Poor Galaxies

There is growing observational and theoretical evidence to suggest that Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULX) form preferentially in low metallicity environments Here we propose a survey of 27 nearby (< 30Mpc) star-forming Extremely Metal Poor Galaxies (Z<5% solar) There are almost no X-ray observations of such low abundance galaxies (3 in the Chandra archive) These are the most metal-deficient galaxies known, and a logical place to find ULX if they favor metal-poor systems We plan to test recent population synthesis models which predict that ULX should be very numerous in metal-poor galaxies We will also test the hypothesis that ULX form in massive young star clusters, and ask for HST time to obtain the necessary imaging data

WFC3/UVIS/IR 11909

UVIS Hot Pixel Anneal

The on-orbit radiation environment of WFC3 will continually generate new hot pixels This proposal performs the procedure required for repairing those hot pixels in the UVIS CCDs During an anneal, the two-stage thermo-electric cooler (TEC) is turned off and the four-stage TEC is used as a heater to bring the UVIS CCDs up to ~20 deg C As a result of the CCD warmup, a majority of the hot pixels will be fixed; previous instruments such as WFPC2 and ACS have seen repair rates of about 80% Internal UVIS exposures are taken before and after each anneal, to allow an assessment of the procedure's effectiveness in WFC3, provide a check of bias, global dark current, and hot pixel levels, as well as support hysteresis (bowtie) monitoring and CDBS reference file generation One IR dark is taken after each anneal, to provide a check of the IR detector

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 07 07 FGS REAcq 09 09 OBAD with Maneuver 05 05

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

============================================================================== TOPIC: Daily Reqort #5045

http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/5eff15b56aad3beb?hl=en

== 1 of 1 == Date: Thurs, Mar 4 2010 10:07Â am From: "Cooper, Joe"

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5045

PERIOD COVERED: 5am March 3 - 5am March 4, 2010 (DOY 062/10:00z-063/10:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/WFC 11995

CCD Daily Monitor (Part 2)

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 320 orbits (20 weeks) from 1 February 2010 to 20 June 2010

ACS/WFC 12016

The Stars and Edge-on Disks of PDS 144: An Intermediate-Mass Analog of Wide T Tauri Multiple Stars

High-Inclination PMS stars are optimally oriented to measure disk size, height, to detect jets, and to directly probe disk composition Placing these data into evolutionary context requires dates for the systems and measurements of L bol, and extinction For such stars, X-ray data provide L x, but also N(H) and the total extinction FUV data measures L UV, and constrains the shape of the extinction curve Recent studies have suggested that the frequency of Jovian-mass planets is higher for systems with intermediate-mass stars, due to disk mass or composition While suitable low mass YSOs are well-represented in the Chandra and HST archives, similar data are lacking for higher mass systems We propose joint Chandra and HST imaging of PDS 144 to fill this gap

COS/FUV/STIS/CCD/MA1 11592

Testing the Origin(s) of the Highly Ionized High-Velocity Clouds: A Survey of Galactic Halo Stars at z>3 kpc

Cosmological simulation predicts that highly ionized gas plays an important role in the formation and evolution of galaxies and their interplay with the intergalactic medium The NASA HST and FUSE missions have revealed high-velocity CIV and OVI absorption along extragalactic sightlines through the Galactic halo These highly ionized high-velocity clouds (HVCs) could cover 85% of the sky and have a detection rate higher than the HI HVCs Two competing, equally exciting, theories may explain the origin of these highly ionized HVCs: 1) the "Galactic" theory, where the HVCs are the result of feedback processes and trace the disk-halo mass exchange, perhaps including the accretion of matter condensing from an extended corona; 2) the "Local Group" theory, where they are part of the local warm-hot intergalactic medium, representing some of the missing baryonic matter of the Universe Only direct distance determinations can discriminate between these models Our group has found that some of these highly ionized HVCs have a Galactic origin, based on STIS observations of one star at z<5 3 kpc We propose an HST FUV spectral survey to search for and characterize the high velocity NV, CIV, and SiIV interstellar absorption toward 24 stars at much larger distances than any previous searches (4

COS/NUV 11896

NUV Spectroscopic Sensitivity Monitoring

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor sensitivity of each NUV grating mode to detect any changes due to contamination or other causes

STIS/CCD 11612

Eta Carinae's Continuing Instability and Recovery - The 2009 Event

Eta Carinae is the only really observable example of structural recovery from a massive giant eruption, a "supernova imposter' event Moreover it is the only well-observed star above 100 Msun, and its 5 5-year-recurrent spectroscopic events provide extraordinary clues to its surface instability This truly unique combination of attributes makes it valuable for understanding the most massive stars A fresh development arose a few years ago: the star has brightened much faster than before, and appears to have entered a rapid stage in its post-eruption recovery

A spectroscopic event will occur at 2009 0, soon after the planned HST servicing mission Because of the recent secular trend, this event is expected to differ from its well-observed 2003 5 predecessor The differences will be very important, because they offer clues to very- massive-star structural instabilities that can't be observed in any other known way

Some of the needed observations require HST's high spatial resolution and UV coverage We propose an efficient, well-chosen set of STIS and ACS observations around the critical time If the servicing mission is too late for the event, then a subset of the observations will still be merited

STIS/CCD 11703

The Nature of the Black Hole in a NGC 4472 Globular Cluster and the Origin of Its Broad [OIII] Emission

We propose to use STIS to obtain optical spectroscopy at high spatial resolution of the black hole-hosting globular cluster RZ2109 in the Virgo elliptical NGC 4472 This is motivated by our very recent discovery broad [OIII] 4959, 5007 emission with a width of several thousand km/s in this globular cluster The STIS spectroscopy will enable us to determine if the very broad [OIII] emission is due to material driven at high velocity from the central accreting black hole across the globular cluster, or if the velocity widths are due to gravitational motions very close to the central black hole In the former case, the [OIII] emission should extend over a few-tenths of an arcsecond and be spatially resolved by HST and STIS, while in the latter case, the emission lines will be unresolved Distinguishing between these two possibilities will allow us to - 1) determine whether the black hole is of intermediate mass or a stellar mass, and thereby whether the black hole mass - sigma relation extends to globular cluster masses, 2) test models of black hole formation and evolution in dense stellar systems, and 3) address the nature of accretion in the high luminosity black-hole X-ray source, and constrain the feedback processes from luminous black holes into their surrounding medium in dense stellar systems

STIS/CCD 11844

CCD Dark Monitor Part 1

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the darks for the STIS CCD

STIS/CCD 11846

CCD Bias Monitor-Part 1

The purpose of this proposal is to 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/ACS/UVIS 11877

HST Cycle 17 and Post-SM4 Optical Monitor

This program is the Cycle 17 implementation of the HST Optical Monitoring Program

The 36 orbits comprising this proposal will utilize ACS (Wide Field Channel) and WFC3 (UVIS Channel) to observe stellar cluster members in parallel with multiple exposures over an orbit Phase retrieval performed on the PSF in each image will be used to measure primarily focus, with the ability to explore apparent coma, and astigmatism changes in WFC3

The goals of this program are to: 1) monitor the overall OTA focal length for the purposes of maintaining focus within science tolerances 2) gain experience with the relative effectiveness of phase retrieval on WFC3/UVIS PSFs 3) determine focus offset between the imagers and identify any SI-specific focus behavior and dependencies

If need is determined, future visits will be modified to interleave WFC3/IR channel and STIS/CCD focii measurements

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/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)

WFC3/UVIS 11908

Cycle 17: UVIS Bowtie Monitor

WFC3/UVIS/IR 11909

UVIS Hot Pixel Anneal

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 09 09 OBAD with Maneuver 06 06

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

==============================================================================

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