HUBBLE
SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science
DAILY
REPORT #5108
PERIOD
COVERED: 5am June 1 - 5am June 2, 2010 (DOY 152/09:00z-153/09:00z)
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
8
8
FGS
REAcq
5
5
OBAD
with Maneuver 6
6
SIGNIFICANT
EVENTS: (None)
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.
COS/FUV
11686
The
Cosmological Impact of AGN Outflows: Measuring Absolute Abundances
and
Kinetic Luminosities
AGN
outflows are increasingly invoked as a major contributor to the
formation
and evolution of supermassive black holes, their host
galaxies,
the surrounding IGM, and cluster cooling flows. Our HST/COS
proposal
will determine reliable absolute chemical abundances in six AGN
outflows,
which influences several of the processes mentioned above. To
date
there is only one such determination, done by our team on Mrk 279
using
16 HST/STIS orbits and 100 ksec of FUSE time. The advent of COS
and
its high sensitivity allows us to choose among fainter objects at
redshifts
high enough to preclude the need for FUSE. This will allow us
to
determine the absolute abundances for six AGN (all fainter than Mrk
279)
using only 40 HST COS orbits. This will put abundances studies in
AGN
on a firm footing, an elusive goal for the past four decades. In
addition,
prior FUSE observations of four of these targets indicate that
it
is probable that the COS observations will detect troughs from
excited
levels of C III. These will allow us to measure the distances of
the
outflows and thereby determine their kinetic luminosity, a major
goal
in AGN feedback research. We will use our state of the art column
density
extraction methods and velocity-dependent photoionization models
to
determine the abundances and kinetic luminosity. Previous AGN outflow
projects
suffered from the constraints of deciding what science we could
do
using ONE of the handful of bright targets that were observable. With
COS
we can choose the best sample for our experiment. As an added bonus,
most
of the spectral range of our targets has not been observed
previously,
greatly increasing the discovery phase space.
COS/FUV
11692
The
LMC as a QSO Absorption Line System
We
propose to obtain high resolution, high signal-to-noise observations
of
QSOs behind the Large Magellanic Clouds. These QSOs are situated
beyond
the star forming disk of the galaxy, giving us the opportunity to
study
the distribution of metals and energy in regions lacking
significant
star formation. In particular, we will derive the
metallicities
and study the ionization characteristics of LMC gas at
impact
parameters 3-17 kpc. We will compare our results with high-z QSO
absorption
line systems.
FGS
11704
The
Ages of Globular Clusters and the Population II Distance Scale
Globular
clusters are the oldest objects in the universe whose age can
be
accurately determined. The dominant error in globular cluster age
determinations
is the uncertain Population II distance scale. We propose
to
use FGS 1r to obtain parallaxes with an accuracy of 0.2
milliarcsecond
for 9 main sequence stars with [Fe/H] < -1.5. This will
determine
the absolute magnitude of these stars with accuracies of 0.04
to
0.06mag. This data will be used to determine the distance to 24
metal-poor
globular clusters using main sequence fitting. These
distances
(with errors of 0.05 mag) will be used to determine the ages
of
globular clusters using the luminosity of the subgiant branch as an
age
indicator. This will yield absolute ages with an accuracy 5%, about
a
factor of two improvement over current estimates. Coupled with
existing
parallaxes for more metal-rich stars, we will be able to
accurately
determine the age for globular clusters over a wide range of
metallicities
in order to study the early formation history of the Milky
Way
and provide an independent estimate of the age of the universe.
The
Hipparcos database contains only 1 star with [Fe/H] < -1.4 and an
absolute
magnitude error less than 0.18 mag which is suitable for use in
main
sequence fitting. Previous attempts at main sequence fitting to
metal-poor
globular clusters have had to rely on theoretical
calibrations
of the color of the main sequence. Our HST parallax program
will
remove this source of possible systematic error and yield distances
to
metal-poor globular clusters which are significantly more accurate
than
possible with the current parallax data. The HST parallax data will
have
errors which are 10 times smaller than the current parallax data.
Using
the HST parallaxes, we will obtain main sequence fitting distances
to
11 globular clusters which contain over 500 RR Lyrae stars. This will
allow
us to calibrate the absolute magnitude of RR Lyrae stars, a
commonly
used Population II distance indicator.
FGS
11788
The
Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems
Are
all planetary systems coplanar? Concordance cosmogony makes that
prediction.
It is, however, a prediction of extrasolar planetary system
architecture
as yet untested by direct observation for main sequence
stars
other than the Sun. To provide such a test, we propose to carry
out
FGS astrometric studies on four stars hosting seven companions. Our
understanding
of the planet formation process will grow as we match not
only
system architecture, but formed planet mass and true distance from
the
primary with host star characteristics for a wide variety of host
stars
and exoplanet masses.
We
propose that a series of FGS astrometric observations with
demonstrated
1 millisecond of arc per-observation precision can
establish
the degree of coplanarity and component true masses for four
extrasolar
systems: HD 202206 (brown dwarf+planet); HD 128311
(planet+planet),
HD 160691 = mu Arae (planet+planet), and HD 222404AB =
gamma
Cephei (planet+star). In each case the companion is identified as
such
by assuming that the minimum mass is the actual mass. For the last
target,
a known stellar binary system, the companion orbit is stable
only
if coplanar with the AB binary orbit.
STIS/CCD
11845
CCD
Dark Monitor Part 2
Monitor
the darks for the STIS CCD.
STIS/CCD
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/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
characterisitics
(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/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/UVI
11556
Investigations
of the Pluto System
We
propose a set of high SNR observations of the Pluto system that will
provide
improved lightcurves, orbits, and photometric properties of Nix
and
Hydra. The key photometric result for Nix and Hydra will be a vastly
improved
lightcurve shape and rotation period to test if the objects are
in
synchronous rotation or not. A second goal of this program will be to
retrieve
a new epoch of albedo map for the surface of Pluto. These
observations
will also improve masses and in some case densities for the
bodies
in the Pluto system.
WFC3/UVI
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<BR>and dark frames. A smaller set of 2Kx4K
subarray
biases are acquired at less frequent intervals<BR>throughout
the
cycle to support subarray science observations. The internals from
this
proposal,<BR>along with those from the anneal procedure (11909),
will
be used to generate the necessary superbias<BR>and superdark
reference
files for the calibration pipeline (CDBS).
WFC3/UVI
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.