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      # 4496

PERIOD COVERED: UT November 28, 2007 (DOY 332)

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 10915

ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey

Existing HST observations of nearby galaxies comprise a sparse and

highly non-uniform archive, making comprehensive comparative studies

among galaxies essentially impossible. We propose to secure HST's

lasting impact on the study of nearby galaxies by undertaking a

systematic, complete, and carefully crafted imaging survey of ALL

galaxies in the Local Universe outside the Local Group. The resulting

images will allow unprecedented measurements of: {1} the star formation

history {SFH} of a >100 Mpc^3 volume of the Universe with a time

resolution of Delta[log{t}]=0.25; {2} correlations between spatially

resolved SFHs and environment; {3} the structure and properties of thick

disks and stellar halos; and {4} the color distributions, sizes, and

specific frequencies of globular and disk clusters as a function of

galaxy mass and environment. To reach these goals, we will use a

combination of wide-field tiling and pointed deep imaging to obtain

uniform data on all 72 galaxies within a volume-limited sample extending

to ~3.5 Mpc, with an extension to the M81 group. For each galaxy, the

wide-field imaging will cover out to ~1.5 times the optical radius and

will reach photometric depths of at least 2 magnitudes below the tip of

the red giant branch throughout the limits of the survey volume. One

additional deep pointing per galaxy will reach SNR~10 for red clump

stars, sufficient to recover the ancient SFH from the color-magnitude

diagram. This proposal will produce photometric information for ~100

million stars {comparable to the number in the SDSS survey} and uniform

multi- color images of half a square degree of sky. The resulting

archive will establish the fundamental optical database for nearby

galaxies, in preparation for the shift of high- resolution imaging to

the near-infrared.

WFPC2 11103

A Snapshot Survey of The Most Massive Clusters of Galaxies

We propose the continuation of our highly successful SNAPshot survey of

a sample of 125 very X-ray luminous clusters in the redshift range

0.3-0.7. As demonstrated by the 25 snapshots obtained so far in Cycle14

and Cycle15 these systems frequently exhibit strong gravitational

lensing as well as spectacular examples of violent galaxy interactions.

The proposed observations will provide important constraints on the

cluster mass distributions, the physical nature of galaxy-galaxy and

galaxy-gas interactions in cluster cores, and a set of optically bright,

lensed galaxies for further 8-10m spectroscopy. All of our primary

science goals require only the detection and characterization of

high-surface-brightness features and are thus achievable even at the

reduced sensitivity of WFPC2. Because of their high redshift and thus

compact angular scale our target clusters are less adversely affected by

the smaller field of view of WFPC2 than more nearby systems.

Acknowledging the broad community interest in this sample we waive our

data rights for these observations. Due to a clerical error at STScI our

approved Cycle15 SNAP program was barred from execution for 3 months and

only 6 observations have been performed to date - reinstating this SNAP

at Cycle16 priority is of paramount importance to reach meaningful

statistics.

WFPC2 11140

Can mass-ejections from late He-shell flash stars constrain

convective/reactive flow modeling of stellar interiors?

The existence of H-deficient knots around the central stars of the

planetary nebulae Abell 30 and Abell 78 is still unexplained. We

hypothesize that these knots were ejected during a very late

helium-shell flash {= very late thermal pulse, VLTP} suffered by the

precursor white dwarf stars. If this is true, then the characteristics

of these knots {mass, velocity, density, spatial distribution} allow to

draw conclusions on the course of the hydrogen- ingestion flash

detonation that is triggered by the He-shell flash. This provides

important, otherwise inaccessible constraints for the hydrodynamical

modeling of convective/reactive flows in stellar interiors.

Understanding the physics of these flows is not only important for the

understanding of these particular central stars, but also for the

frequent, very similar convective/reactive events that determine the

nucleosynthesis in Pop. III stars. With this proposal we want to proof

or discard the idea that the H-deficient knots are resulting from a

VLTP. If true, then they can be exploited for flash-physics diagnostics.

We propose a simple test. We search for such knots around five

H-deficient central stars {PG1159 stars}. Our models predict, that only

those stars with residual nitrogen in the atmosphere have suffered a

VLTP and, hence, should have expelled knots. We therefore want to take

[O III] images of stars which have photospheric N and those which do

not.

WFPC2 11289

SL2S: The Strong Lensing Legacy Survey

Recent systematic surveys of strong galaxy-galaxy lenses {CLASS, SLACS,

GOODS, etc.} are producing spectacular results for galaxy masses roughly

below a transition mass M~10^13 Mo. The observed lens properties and

their evolution up to z~0.2, consistent with numerical simulations, can

be described by isothermal elliptical potentials. In contrast, modeling

of giant arcs in X-ray luminous clusters {halo masses M >~10^13 Mo}

favors NFW mass profiles, suggesting that dark matter halos are not

significantly affected by baryon cooling. Until recently, lensing

surveys were neither deep nor extended enough to probe the intermediate

mass density regime, which is fundamental for understanding the assembly

of structures. The CFHT Legacy Survey now covers 125 square degrees, and

thus offers a large reservoir of strong lenses probing a large range of

mass densities up to z~1. We have extracted a list of 150 strong lenses

using the most recent CFHTLS data release via automated procedures.

Following our first SNAPSHOT proposal in cycle 15, we propose to

continue the Hubble follow-up targeting a larger list of 130 lensing

candidates. These are intermediate mass range candidates {between

galaxies and clusters} that are selected in the redshift range of 0.2-1

with no a priori X-ray selection. The HST resolution is necessary for

confirming the lensing candidates, accurate modeling of the lenses, and

probing the total mass concentration in galaxy groups up to z~1 with the

largest unbiased sample available to date.

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               04                  04                     

OBAD with Maneuver 20                  20                    

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)