Date: April 21st 2010

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Daily Report #5077 - 1 messages, 1 author http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/9e467d3834501612?hl=en
Daily Report #5078 - 1 messages, 1 author http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/8f4963f967df99f2?hl=en

============================================================================== TOPIC: Daily Report #5077

http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/9e467d3834501612?hl=en

== 1 of 1 == Date: Mon, Apr 19 2010 8:37Ã‚Â am From: "Cooper, Joe"

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5077

PERIOD COVERED: 5am April 16 - 5am April 19, 2010 (DOY 106/09:00z-109/09:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

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

ACS/WFC 12017

The Proper Motion of SNR E0519-69 0

We propose to measure independently the proper motion expansions of the ejecta and forward shock in SNR E0519-69 0 The metal-enriched reverse-shock-heated ejecta emits only in X-rays, while the forward shock is traced to high precision by H alpha emission The proposed measurements require the unique high resolution imaging capabilities of Chandra and Hubble The optical (forward shock) and X-ray (ejecta) results will yield important constraints on the remnant's evolutionary state; we will search in particular for evidence of cosmic-ray modified dynamics An important component of this project is an integrated theoretical investigation using realistic models of SN Ia explosions evolved to the remnant stage

COS/FUV 11997

FUV Internal/External Wavelength Scale Monitor

This program monitors the offsets between the wavelength scale set by the internal wavecal versus that defined by absorption lines in external targets This is accomplished by observing two external targets in the SMC: SK191 with G130M and G160M and Cl* NGC 330 ROB B37 with G140L (SK191 is too bright to be observed with G140L) The cenwaves observed in this program are a subset of the ones used during Cycle 17 Observing all cenwaves would require a considerably larger number of orbits Constraints on scheduling of each target are placed so that each target is observed once every ~2-3 months Observing the two targets every month would also require a considerably larger number of orbits

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

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 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 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 11903

UVIS Photometric Zero Points

This proposal obtains the photometric zero points in 53 of the 62 UVIS/WFC3 filters: the 18 broad-band filters, 8 medium-band filters, 16 narrow-band filters, and 11 of the 20 quad filters (those being used in cycle 17) The observations will be primary obtained by observing the hot DA white dwarf standards GD153 and G191-B2B A redder secondary standard, P330E, will be observed in a subset of the filters to provide color corrections Repeat observations in 16 of the most widely used cycle 17 filters will be obtained once per month for the first three months, and then once every second month for the duration of cycle 17, alternating and depending on target availability These observations will enable monitoring of the stability of the photometric system Photometric transformation equations will be calculated by comparing the photometry of stars in two globular clusters, 47 Tuc and NGC 2419, to previous measurements with other telescopes/instruments

FGS 11874

Monitoring FGS2R2 S-Curves after SMOV4

This proposal satisfies the near-term requirement associated with SMOV4 activity OTA/FGS-10, as well as the long term Cycle 17 requirement to monitor the post SM4 evolution of the FGS2R2 S-curves stability during its first year on orbit The S curves will be obtained from Trans mode observations of stars (point sources) at several locations in the FGS2R2 FOV in order to monitor both global and differential (i e , field-dependent) changes At each location, both F583W and PUPIL S-curves will be obtained Stars in the M35 cluster will be used for this proposal since the field lies very near the ecliptic and can therefore be observed by HST at two Orients from August to May

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/CC 11845

CCD Dark Monitor Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD

ACS/WFC/WFC3/IR 11802

WFC3/IR Observations of Strongly Lensing Clusters

We propose WFC3/IR observations of the massive lensing clusters Abell 1689 and Abell 1703 to constrain the properties of both cluster and background field galaxies The dataset will also help constrain the photometric redshift of A1689-zD1, the bright galaxy candidate at z~7 6

ACS/WFC3 11735

The LSD Project: Dynamics, Merging and Stellar Populations of a Sample of Well-Studied LBGs at z~3

A large observational effort with the ground-based ESO/VLT telescopes allowed us to obtain deep, spatially-resolved, near-IR spectra of complete sample of 11 Lyman-Break Galaxies at z~3 1 These observations were used to obtain, for the first time, the metallicity and the dynamical properties of a sample of objects that, albeit small, is representative of the total population of the LBGs We propose to use HST to obtain high-resolution optical and near-IR images of this sample of LBGs in order to study the broad-band morphology and the stellar light distribution of these galaxies These images, exploiting the superior spatial resolution of HST images and the low-background : 1- will allow a precise measure of the dynamical mass from the velocity field derived with spectroscopy; 2- will permit a comparison of the distribution of star formation (from the line emission) with the underlying stellar population, and, 3- will be used to check if the complex velocity field and the multiple line-emitting regions detected in most targets can be ascribed to on-going mergers This accurate study will shed light on a number of unsolved problems still affecting the knowledge of the LBGs

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

WFC3/IR 11712

Calibration of Surface Brightness Fluctuations for WFC3/IR

We aim to characterize galaxy surface brightness fluctuations (SBF), and calibrate the SBF distance method, in the F110W and F160W filters of the Wide Field Camera 3 IR channel Because of the very high throughput of F110W and the good match of F160W to the standard H band, we anticipate that both of these filters will be popular choices for galaxy observations with WFC3/IR The SBF signal is typically an order of magnitude brighter in the near-IR than in the optical, and the characteristics (sensitivity, FOV, cosmetics) of the WFC3/IR channel will be enormously more efficient for SBF measurements than previously available near-IR cameras As a result, our proposed SBF calibration will allow accurate distance derivation whenever an early-type or bulge-dominated galaxy is observed out to a distance of 150 Mpc or more (i e , out to the Hubble flow) in the calibrated passbands For individual galaxy observations, an accurate distance is useful for establishing absolute luminosities, black hole masses, linear sizes, etc Eventually, once a large number of galaxies have been observed across the sky with WFC3/IR, this SBF calibration will enable accurate mapping of the total mass density distribution in the local universe using the data available in the HST archive The proposed observations will have additional important scientific value; in particular, we highlight their usefulness for understanding the nature of multimodal globular cluster color distributions in giant elliptical galaxies

WFC3/ACS/IR 11600

Star Formation, Extinction, and Metallicity at 0 7

The global star formation rate (SFR) is ~10x higher at z=1 than today This could be due to drastically elevated SFR in some fraction of galaxies, such as mergers with central bursts, or a higher SFR across the board Either means that the conditions in z=1 star forming galaxies could be quite different from local objects The next step beyond measuring the global SFR is to determine the dependence of SFR, obscuration, metallicity, and size of the star-forming region on galaxy mass and redshift However, SFR indicators at z=1 typically apply local calibrations for UV, [O II] and far-IR, and do not agree with each other on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis Extinction, metallicity, and dust properties cause uncontrolled offsets in SFR calibrations The great missing link is Balmer H-alpha, the most sensitive probe of SFR We propose a slitless WFC3/G141 IR grism survey of GOODS-N, at 2 orbits/pointing It will detect Ha+[N II] emission from 0 7 600 galaxies, and a small number of higher-redshift emitters This will produce: an emission-line redshift survey unbiased by magnitude and color selection; star formation rates as a function of galaxy properties, e g stellar mass and morphology/mergers measured by ACS; comparisons of SFRs from H-alpha to UV and far-IR indicators; calibrations of line ratios of H-alpha to important nebular lines such as [O II] and H-beta, measuring variations in metallicity and extinction and their effect on SFR estimates; and the first measurement of scale lengths of the H-alpha emitting, star- forming region in a large sample of z~1 sources

COS/NUV/FUV 11598

How Galaxies Acquire their Gas: A Map of Multiphase Accretion and Feedback in Gaseous Galaxy Halos

We propose to address two of the biggest open questions in galaxy formation - how galaxies acquire their gas and how they return it to the IGM - with a concentrated COS survey of diffuse multiphase gas in the halos of SDSS galaxies at z = 0 15 - 0 35 Our chief science goal is to establish a basic set of observational facts about the physical state, metallicity, and kinematics of halo gas, including the sky covering fraction of hot and cold material, the metallicity of infall and outflow, and correlations with galaxy stellar mass, type, and color - all as a function of impact parameter from 10 - 150 kpc Theory suggests that the bimodality of galaxy colors, the shape of the luminosity function, and the mass-metallicity relation are all influenced at a fundamental level by accretion and feedback, yet these gas processes are poorly understood and cannot be predicted robustly from first principles We lack even a basic observational assessment of the multiphase gaseous content of galaxy halos on 100 kpc scales, and we do not know how these processes vary with galaxy properties This ignorance is presently one of the key impediments to understanding galaxy formation in general We propose to use the high-resolution gratings G130M and G160M on the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph to obtain sensitive column density measurements of a comprehensive suite of multiphase ions in the spectra of 43 z < 1 QSOs lying behind 43 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey In aggregate, these sightlines will constitute a statistically sound map of the physical state and metallicity of gaseous halos, and subsets of the data with cuts on galaxy mass, color, and SFR will seek out predicted variations of gas properties with galaxy properties Our interpretation of these data will be aided by state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulations of accretion and feedback, in turn providing information to refine and test such models We will also use Keck, MMT, and Magellan (as needed) to obtain optical spectra of the QSOs to measure cold gas with Mg II, and optical spectra of the galaxies to measure SFRs and to look for outflows In addition to our other science goals, these observations will help place the Milky Way's population of multiphase, accreting High Velocity Clouds (HVCs) into a global context by identifying analogous structures around other galaxies Our program is designed to make optimal use of the unique capabilities of COS to address our science goals and also generate a rich dataset of other absorption-line systems

WFC3/UVIS 11595

Turning Out the Light: A WFC3 Program to Image z>2 Damped Lyman Alpha Systems

We propose to directly image the star-forming regions of z>2 damped Lya systems (DLAs) using the WFC3/UVIS camera on the Hubble Space Telescope In contrast to all previous attempts to detect the galaxies giving rise to high redshift DLAs, we will use a novel technique that completely removes the glare of the background quasar Specifically, we will target quasar sightlines with multiple DLAs and use the higher redshift DLA as a ``blocking filter'' (via Lyman limit absorption) to eliminate all FUV emission from the quasar This will allow us to carry out a deep search for FUV emission from the lower redshift DLA, shortward of the Lyman limit of the higher redshift absorber The unique filter set and high spatial resolution afforded by WFC3/UVIS will then enable us to directly image the lower redshift DLA and thus estimate its size, star- formation rate and impact parameter from the QSO sightline We propose to observe a sample of 20 sightlines, selected primarily from the SDSS database, requiring a total of 40 HST orbits The observations will allow us to determine the first FUV luminosity function of high redshift DLA galaxies and to correlate the DLA galaxy properties with the ISM characteristics inferred from standard absorption-line analysis to significantly improve our understanding of the general DLA population

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

NIC2/WFC3/IR 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 flavor 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 behavior in a substantially larger sample; ii) extend the comparison between radio-loud and radio-quiet AGN to a larger range of luminosities

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 21 21 FGS REAcq 22 22 OBAD with Maneuver 16 16

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

Flash Reports:

The new acquisition PLCP groups were used at the start of the 109 SMS All indications are that the first two acquisitions were successful

============================================================================== TOPIC: Daily Report #5078

http://groups google com/group/sci astro hubble/t/8f4963f967df99f2?hl=en

== 1 of 1 == Date: Tues, Apr 20 2010 8:53Ã‚Â am From: "Cooper, Joe"

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5078

PERIOD COVERED: 5am April 19 - 5am April 20, 2010 (DOY 109/09:00z-110/09:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/WFC 11995

CCD Daily Monitor (Part 2)

COS/FUV 11895

FUV Detector Dark Monitor

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

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 11894

NUV Detector Dark Monitor

The purpose of this proposal is to measure the NUV detector dark rate by taking long science exposures with no light on 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

S/C 12046

COS FUV DCE Memory Dump

Whenever the FUV detector high voltage is on, count rate and current draw information is collected, monitored, and saved to DCE memory Every 10 msec the detector samples the currents from the HV power supplies (HVIA, HVIB) and the AUX power supply (AUXI) The last 1000 samples are saved in memory, along with a histogram of the number of occurrences of each current value

In the case of a HV transient (known as a "crackle" on FUSE), where one of these currents exceeds a preset threshold for a persistence time, the HV will shut down, and the DCE memory will be dumped and examined as part of the recovery procedure However, if the current exceeds the threshold for less than the persistence time (a "mini-crackle" in FUSE parlance), there is no way to know without dumping DCE memory By dumping and examining the histograms regularly, we will be able to monitor any changes in the rate of "mini-crackles" and thus learn something about the state of the detector

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/CC 12078

Verification of Adjustment to Two STIS MSM Positions

Two STIS CCD CENWAVE positions (G430M 5216 & G750M 6094) project onto the detector at a row that differs significantly from the nominal position near the center of the detector This proposal will test the MSM updates to properly center these positions

STIS/CCD 11849

STIS CCD Hot Pixel Annealing

This purpose of this activity is to repair radiation induced hot pixel damage to the STIS CCD by warming the CCD to the ambient instrument temperature and annealing radiation-damaged pixels

Radiation damage creates hot pixels in the STIS CCD Detector Many of these hot pixels can be repaired by warming the CCD from its normal operating temperature near -83 deg C to the ambient instrument temperature (~ +5 deg C) for several hours The number of hot pixels repaired is a function of annealing temperature The effectiveness of the CCD hot pixel annealing process is assessed by measuring the dark current behavior before and after annealing and by searching for any window contamination effects

WFC3/ACS/IR 11600

Star Formation, Extinction, and Metallicity at 0 7

WFC3/ACS/UVIS/IR 11570

Narrowing in on the Hubble Constant and Dark Energy

A measurement of the Hubble constant to a precision of a few percent would be a powerful aid to the investigation of the nature of dark energy and a potent "end-to end" test of the present cosmological model In Cycle 15 we constructed a new streamlined distance ladder utilizing high- quality type Ia supernova data and observations of Cepheids with HST in the near-IR to minimize the dominant sources of systematic uncertainty in past measurements of the Hubble constant and reduce its total uncertainty to a little under 5% Here we propose to exploit this new route to reduce the remaining uncertainty by more than 30%, translating into an equal reduction in the uncertainty of the equation of state of dark energy We propose three sets of observations to reach this goal: a mosaic of NGC 4258 with WFC3 in F160W to triple its sample of long period Cepheids, WFC3/F160W observations of the 6 ideal SN Ia hosts to triple their samples of Cepheids, and observations of NGC 5584 the host of a new SN Ia, SN 2007af, to discover and measure its Cepheids and begin expanding the small set of SN Ia luminosity calibrations These observations would provide the bulk of a coordinated program aimed at making the measurement of the Hubble constant one of the leading constraints on dark energy

WFC3/IR 11719

A Calibration Database for Stellar Models of Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars

Studies of galaxy formation and evolution rely increasingly on the interpretation and modeling of near-infrared observations At these wavelengths, the brightest stars are intermediate mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars These stars can contribute nearly 50% of the integrated luminosity at near infrared and even optical wavelengths, particularly for the younger stellar populations characteristic of high-redshift galaxies (z>1) AGB stars are also significant sources of dust and heavy elements Accurate modeling of AGB stars is therefore of the utmost importance

The primary limitation facing current models is the lack of useful calibration data Current models are tuned to match the properties of the AGB population in the Magellanic Clouds, and thus have only been calibrated in a very narrow range of sub-solar metallicities Preliminary observations already suggest that the models are overestimating AGB lifetimes by factors of 2-3 at lower metallicities At higher (solar) metallicities, there are no appropriate observations for calibrating the models

We propose a WFC3/IR SNAP survey of nearby galaxies to create a large database of AGB populations spanning the full range of metallicities and star formation histories Because of their intrinsically red colors and dusty circumstellar envelopes, tracking the numbers and bolometric fluxes of AGB stars requires the NIR observations we propose here The resulting observations of nearby galaxies with deep ACS imaging offer the opportunity to obtain large (100-1000's) complete samples of AGB stars at a single distance, in systems with well-constrained star formation histories and metallicities

WFC3/UV 12077

Monitoring the Aftermath of an Asteroid Impact Event

Our Director's Discretionary program (GO-12053) to image the newly discovered object P/2010 A2 executed successfully on 2010 Jan 25 and 29 with spectacular results Hubble has apparently borne witness to the first detection of a collision in the asteroid belt Hubble imaging with the WFC3 has revealed an object unlike anything ever seen before and with details impossible to detect with any other facility We request 6 more orbits of Hubble time (1 orbit every 20 days over the next few months, until the object enters Hubble's solar exclusion zone in late-June 2010) to monitor the evolution of this remarkable object and further clarify the nature of this event These observations may usher in a new era of searching for and characterizing collisional events within the asteroid belt

WFC3/UVIS 11565

A Search for Astrometric Companions to Very Low-Mass, Population II Stars

We propose to carry out a Snapshot search for astrometric companions in a subsample of very low-mass, halo subdwarfs identified within 120 parsecs of the Sun These ultra-cool M subdwarfs are local representatives of the lowest-mass H burning objects from the Galactic Population II The expected 3-4 astrometric doubles that will be discovered will be invaluable in that they will be the first systems from which gravitational masses of metal-poor stars at the bottom of the main sequence can be directly measured

WFC3/UVIS 11650

Mutual Orbits, Colors, Masses, and Bulk Densities of 3 Cold Classical Trans-Neptunian Binaries

Many Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) have been found to be binary or multiple systems As in other astrophysical settings, Trans-Neptunian Binaries (TNBs) offer uniquely valuable information Their mutual orbits allow the direct determination of their system masses, perhaps the most fundamental physical quantity of any astronomical object Their frequency of occurrence and dynamical characteristics provide clues to formation conditions and evolution scenarios affecting both the binaries and their single neighbors Combining masses with sizes, bulk densities can be measured Densities constrain bulk composition and internal structure, key clues to TNO origins and evolution over time Several TNB bulk densities have been determined, hinting at interesting trends But none of them belongs to the Cold Classical sub-population, the one group of TNOs with demonstrably distinct physical characteristics Two top-priority Spitzer programs will soon observe and measure the sizes of 3 Cold Classical TNBs This proposal seeks to determine the mutual orbits and thus masses of these systems, enabling computation of their densities

WFC3/UVIS 11905

WFC3 UVIS CCD Daily Monitor

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:

18845-0 - Null Genslew for Proposal 12077 - slot 14 @ 109/1252z

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

                 SCHEDULED    SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSAcq 11 11 FGS REAcq 7 7 OBAD with Maneuver 7 7

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

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

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