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<d<21 kpc, 3<|z|<13 kpc). COS

will provide atomic to highly ionized species (e.g.,OI, CII, CIV, SiIV)

that can be observed at sufficient resolution (R~22, 000) to not only

detect these highly ionized HVCs but also to model their properties and

understand their physics and origins. This survey is only possible

because of the high sensitivity of COS in the FUV spectral range.

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

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/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               06           06

FGS REAcq               09           09

OBAD with Maneuver 06           06

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)