Date: April 11th 2010

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Daily Rpt #5069 - 1 messages, 1 author http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/8b27af0b0dd43f15?hl=en
Daily Report #5070 - 1 messages, 1 author http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/efb0ee917410563b?hl=en

============================================================================== TOPIC: Daily Rpt #5069

http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/8b27af0b0dd43f15?hl=en

== 1 of 1 == Date: Wed, Apr 7 2010 7:58Ã‚Â am From: "Bassford, Lynn"

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5069

PERIOD COVERED: 5am April 6 - 5am April 7, 2010 (DOY 096/09:00z-097/09:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/WFC 11715

The Luminous Galactic Cepheid RS Puppis: A Geometric Distance from its Nested Light Echoes

RS Puppis is one of the most luminous Cepheids in the Milky Way (P = 41 4 days) and an analog of the bright Cepheids used to measure extragalactic distances An accurate distance would help anchor the zero-point of the bright end of the period-luminosity relation, but at a distance of about 2 kpc it is too far away for a trigonometric parallax with existing instrumentation

RS Pup is unique in being surrounded by a reflection nebula, whose brightness varies as pulses of light from the Cepheid propagate outwards Members of our team have used ground-based imaging of the nebula to derive phase lags in the light variations of individual features in the nebula, and have inferred a seemingly very precise geometric distance to the star However, there is an unavoidable ambiguity involving the cycle counts, which was resolved by assuming that the features lie in the plane of the sky If this assumption is incorrect, a large systematic error would be introduced into the distance measurement

We show that polarimetric imaging using the high spatial resolution of ACS/WFC and its ability to image close to the star can resolve this ambiguity and yield a reliable geometric distance to RS Pup We will also obtain a wide-field multicolor image of the nebula, in order to study its morphology and the mass-loss history of the Cepheid

COS/NUV/FUV 11673

Dynamics in the Atmosphere of the Evaporating Planet HD189733b

With HST/STIS, we detected and characterized the upper atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD209458b, showing that the planet must be evaporating at a rate of ~10^10 g/s in a "blow-off" mechanism

More recently, using ACS we concluded that HD189733b is also evaporating However, because of the low resolution of the ACS prism spectroscopy, the escape rate and mechanism are still to be determined This is one of the prime objectives of the present proposal

COS observations of the absorption line profile with 15 km/s resolution will allow us to probe the dynamics of the escaping gas, and therefore to determine the escape rate Simultaneous observations of the transit depth and spectral shape in several important lines (not only HI, but also OI, CII and possibly NI) will constrain the escape mechanism and allow us to distinguish between several scenarios The results will enlighten the physical phenomenons at work in the exosphere of these extrasolar planets, and provide new constraints for the modeling of the evaporation of hot-Jupiters

STIS/CC 11845

CCD Dark Monitor Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD

STIS/CC 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/ACS/IR 11142

Revealing the Physical Nature of Infrared Luminous Galaxies at 0 3

We aim to determine physical properties of IR luminous galaxies at 0 3 0 8mJy and their mid-IR spectra have already provided the majority targets with spectroscopic redshifts (0 31 ULIRGs, as in the local Universe, (2) study the co-evolution of star formation and blackhole accretion by investigating the relations between the fraction of starburst/AGN measured from mid-IR spectra vs HST morphologies, L(bol) and z, and (3) obtain the current best estimates of the far-IR emission, thus L(bol) for this sample, and establish if the relative contribution of mid-to-far IR dust emission is correlated with morphology (resolved vs unresolved)

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 11920

WFC3 IR Image Quality

The IR imaging performance over the detector will be assessed periodically (every 4 months) in two passbands to check for image stability The field around star 58 in the open cluster NGC188 is the chosen target because it is sufficiently dense to provide good sampling over the FOV while providing enough isolated stars to permit accurate PSF (point spread function) measurement It is available year-round and used previously for ACS image quality assessment The field is astrometric, and astrometric guide stars will be used, so that the plate scale and image orientation may also be determined if necessary (as in SMOV proposals 11437 and 11443) Full frame images will be obtained at each of 4 POSTARG offset positions designed to improve sampling over the detector in F098M, F105W, and F160W The PSFs will be sampled at 4 positions with subpixel shifts in filters F164N and F127M

This proposal is a periodic repeat (once every 4 months) of the visits in SMOV proposal 11437 (activity ID WFC3-24) The data will be analyzed using the code and techniques described in ISR WFC3 2008-41 (Hartig) Profiles of encircled energy will be monitored and presented in an ISR If an update to the SIAF is needed, (V2, V3) locations of stars will be obtained from the Flight Ops Sensors and Calibrations group at GSFC, the (V2, V3) of the reference pixel and the orientation of the detector will be determined by the WFC3 group, and the Telescopes group will update and deliver the SIAF to the PRDB branch

The specific PSF metrics to be examined are encircled energy for aperture diameter 0 25, 0 37, and 0 60 arcsec, FWHM, and sharpness (See ISR WFC3 2008-41 tables 2 and 3 and preceding text ) ~20 stars distributed over the detector will be measured in each exposure for each filter The mean, rms, and rms of the mean will be determined for each metric The values determined from each of the 4 exposures per filter within a visit will be compared to each other to see to what extent they are affected by "breathing" Values will be compared from visit to visit, starting with the values obtained during SMOV after the fine alignment has been performed, to see if the measures of the compactness of the PSF indicate degradation over time The analysis will be repeated for stars on the inner part of the detector and stars on the outer part of the detector to check for differential degradation of the PSF

As an example of the analysis, one can examine the sharpness of the F160W PSF exposures made during thermal vacuum testing (ISR WFC3 2008-41) To compare two samples, one can define the PSFs on each half of the detector (lower and upper) as a sample (with 7 and 8 PSFs, respectively) The mean, rms, and rms of the mean sharpness are 0 0826, 0 0067, and 0 0027 for one half, and 0 0773, 0 0049, and 0 0019 for the other The difference of the means is 0 0053 and the statistical error in that difference is 0 0033, so the difference is not significant

WFC3/IR 11926

IR Zero Points

We will measure and monitor the zeropoints through the IR filters using observations of the white dwarf standard stars, GD153, GD71 and GD191B2B and the solar analog standard star, P330E Data will be taken monthly during Cycle 17 Observations of the star cluster, NGC 104, are made twice to check color transformations We expect an accuracy of 2% in the wide filter zeropoints relative to the HST photometric system, and 5% in the medium- and narrow-band filters

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/UV 11635

Improve the Measurement of Vesta's Pole Orientation to Support Dawn Mission

NASA?s Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to go into orbit around the main belt asteroid 4 Vesta in July 2011 Currently the project is using a 3- pole position uncertainty of Vesta of 12 for spacecraft trajectory design We have determined that with an additional set of Hubble observations at Vesta?s next opposition in February 2010, that the pole position uncertainty can be reduced by a factor of 4 This will reduce both cost and risk to the Dawn mission, and is likely to increase the stay time at Vesta and will add to the scientific return of the mission The requested observing window in February 2010 is the last and single best opportunity that can benefit the Dawn mission, but it is before the start of the next HST Cycle

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

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

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 7 7 FGS REAcq 10 10 OBAD with Maneuver 7 7

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

============================================================================== TOPIC: Daily Report #5070

http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/efb0ee917410563b?hl=en

== 1 of 1 == Date: Thurs, Apr 8 2010 1:07Ã‚Â pm From: "Cooper, Joe"

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5070

PERIOD COVERED: 5am April 7 - 5am April 8, 2010 (DOY 097/09:00z-098/09:00z)

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/WFC3 11599

Distances of Planetary Nebulae from SNAPshots of Resolved Companions

Reliable distances to individual planetary nebulae (PNe) in the Milky Way are needed to advance our understanding of their spatial distribution, birthrates, influence on galactic chemistry, and the luminosities and evolutionary states of their central stars (CSPN) Few PNe have good distances, however One of the best ways to remedy this problem is to find resolved physical companions to the CSPN and measure their distances by photometric main-sequence fitting We have previously used HST to identify and measure probable companions to 10 CSPN, based on angular separations and statistical arguments only We now propose to use HST to re-observe 48 PNe from that program for which additional companions are possibly present We then can use the added criterion of common proper motion to confirm our original candidate companions and identify new ones in cases that could not confidently be studied before We will image the region around each CSPN in the V and I bands, and in some cases in the B band Field stars that appear close to the CSPN by chance will be revealed by their relative proper motion during the 13+ years since our original survey, leaving only genuine physical companions in our improved and enlarged sample This study will increase the number of Galactic PNe with reliable distances by 50 percent and improve the distances to PNe with previously known companions

STIS/CC 11654

UV Studies of a Core Collapse Supernova

Observations of the UV spectrum of core collapse SNe hold unique information about nucleosynthesis, the mass loss history, shock physics and dust formation in the explosion on massive stars This proposal aims at a detailed study of a bright core collapse SN, discovered by any of the many ongoing surveys, either a Type IIP, IIn or Ibc supernova We will address the role of circumstellar interaction and mass loss through CNO lines in the UV, the nature of dust formation from UV line profiles and use the UV continuum as a diagnostic of non-thermal emission from the shock The overall goal of our team is to achieve a better understanding of these objects by combining HST data with complementary ground-based observations We have used HST to obtain UV spectra from the explosion to the nebular phase Over the past decade, we have conducted studies of nearby SNe with HST, and we have published an extensive series of papers When Nature provides a bright candidate, HST should be ready to respond

STIS/CC 11845

CCD Dark Monitor Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD

STIS/CC 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

STIS/CCD 11784

The Orbit of the Most Massive Known Astrometric Binary

We have recently used FGS and HRC observations to (a) resolve HD 93129A into two components with very similar optical/UV colors and a magnitude difference of 0 9 and to (b) detect their relative orbital motion over a span of 8 years HD 93129Aa is the prototype O2 If* star, with an evolutionary mass near 100 M_Sun, while Ab is likely to be a very early O main-sequence star with a similar or only slightly smaller mass Our HST astrometric measurements yield a total mass above 100 M_Sun, thus confirming the extremely high mass of the binary, and indicate that the system appears to be approaching periastron We request new FGS and HRC observations to (a) calculate the mass ratio of the system by measuring the orbit of each of the components with respect to the nearby stars, (b) obtain the periastron epoch, and (c) start measuring the orbit in order to produce an estimate of the total mass These measurements are crucial to shed light on the value of the stellar upper mass limit Due the the non-recovery of HRC on SM4, the last visit was changed to STIS

STIS/CCD/MA1/MA2 11860

MAMA Spectroscopic Sensitivity and Focus Monitor

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the sensitivity of each MAMA grating mode to detect any change due to contamination or other causes, and to also monitor the STIS focus in a spectroscopic and an imaging mode

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/S/C 11929

IR Dark Current Monitor

WFC3/UV 11635

Improve the Measurement of Vesta's Pole Orientation to Support Dawn Mission

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to go into orbit around the main belt asteroid 4 Vesta in July 2011 Currently the project is using a 3- pole position uncertainty of Vesta of 12 for spacecraft trajectory design We have determined that with an additional set of Hubble observations at Vesta's next opposition in February 2010, that the pole position uncertainty can be reduced by a factor of 4 This will reduce both cost and risk to the Dawn mission, and is likely to increase the stay time at Vesta and will add to the scientific return of the mission The requested observing window in February 2010 is the last and single best opportunity that can benefit the Dawn mission, but it is before the start of the next HST Cycle

WFC3/UVIS 11905

WFC3 UVIS CCD Daily Monitor

WFC3/UVIS/IR 11644

A Dynamical-Compositional Survey of the Kuiper Belt: A New Window Into the Formation of the Outer Solar System

The eight planets overwhelmingly dominate the solar system by mass, but their small numbers, coupled with their stochastic pasts, make it impossible to construct a unique formation history from the dynamical or compositional characteristics of them alone In contrast, the huge numbers of small bodies scattered throughout and even beyond the planets, while insignificant by mass, provide an almost unlimited number of probes of the statistical conditions, history, and interactions in the solar system To date, attempts to understand the formation and evolution of the Kuiper Belt have largely been dynamical simulations where a hypothesized starting condition is evolved under the gravitational influence of the early giant planets and an attempt is made to reproduce the current observed populations With little compositional information known for the real Kuiper Belt, the test particles in the simulation are free to have any formation location and history as long as they end at the correct point Allowing compositional information to guide and constrain the formation, thermal, and collisional histories of these objects would add an entire new dimension to our understanding of the evolution of the outer solar system While ground based compositional studies have hit their flux limits already with only a few objects sampled, we propose to exploit the new capabilities of WFC3 to perform the first ever large-scale dynamical-compositional study of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and their progeny to study the chemical, dynamical, and collisional history of the region of the giant planets The sensitivity of the WFC3 observations will allow us to go up to two magnitudes deeper than our ground based studies, allowing us the capability of optimally selecting a target list for a large survey rather than simply taking the few objects that can be measured, as we have had to do to date We have carefully constructed a sample of 120 objects which provides both overall breadth, for a general understanding of these objects, plus a large enough number of objects in the individual dynamical subclass to allow detailed comparison between and within these groups These objects will likely define the core Kuiper Belt compositional sample for years to come While we have many specific results anticipated to come from this survey, as with any project where the field is rich, our current knowledge level is low, and a new instrument suddenly appears which can exploit vastly larger segments of the population, the potential for discovery -- both anticipated and not -- is extraordinary

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 7 7 FGS REAcq 9 9 OBAD with Maneuver 6 6

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

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

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