| Program Number | Principal Investigator | Program Title |
|---|---|---|
| 12181 | Drake Deming, University of Maryland | The Atmospheric Structure of Giant Hot Exoplanets |
| 12289 | J. Christopher Howk, University of Notre Dame | A COS Snapshot Survey for z < 1.25 Lyman Limit Systems |
| 12442 | Sandra M. Faber, University of California - Santa Cruz | Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey -- GOODS-North Field, Non-SNe-Searched Visits |
| 12458 | Marc Postman, Space Telescope Science Institute | Through a Lens, Darkly - New Constraints on the Fundamental Components of the Cosmos |
| 12459 | Marc Postman, Space Telescope Science Institute | Through a Lens, Darkly - New Constraints on the Fundamental Components of the Cosmos |
| 12461 | Adam Riess, The Johns Hopkins University | Supernova Follow-up for MCT |
| 12468 | Keith S. Noll, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | How Fast Did Neptune Migrate? A Search for Cold Red Resonant Binaries |
| 12471 | Dawn K. Erb, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee | The Bottom of the Iceberg: Faint z~2 Galaxies and the Enrichment of the IGM |
| 12529 | Alicia M. Soderberg, Harvard University | What Powers Nature's Most Luminous Supernovae? |
| 12546 | R. Brent Tully, University of Hawaii | The Geometry and Kinematics of the Local Volume |
| 12558 | Nial R. Tanvir, University of Leicester | Identifying and studying gamma-ray bursts at very high redshifts |
| 12568 | Matthew A. Malkan, University of California - Los Angeles | WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel Survey WISP: A Survey of Star Formation Across Cosmic Time |
| 12577 | Armin Rest, Space Telescope Science Institute | Spectral Time Series of the Cas A Supernova |
| 12596 | Brian E. Wood, Naval Research Laboratory | In Search of a Young Solar Wind |
| 12603 | Timothy M. Heckman, The Johns Hopkins University | Understanding the Gas Cycle in Galaxies: Probing the Circumgalactic Medium |
| 12747 | Fabien Grise, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias | Constraining the irradiated disk and the nature of the companion star in an ultraluminous X-ray source |
| 12894 | Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin - Madison | Methane migration on a Uranus-class planet: symmetric or seasonal? |
| 12929 | Judith L. Provencal, University of Delaware | COS Observations of Pulsating DB White Dwarfs |
| 12942 | Eilat Glikman, Yale University | Testing the Merger Hypothesis for Black Hole/Galaxy Co-Evolution at z~2 |
| 12986 | Kailash C. Sahu, Space Telescope Science Institute | Detecting Isolated Black Holes through Astrometric Microlensing |
| 13012 | Laurent Lamy, Observatoire de Paris - Section de Meudon | Near-equinox spectro-imaging of Uranus aurorae sampling two planetary rotations |
| 13021 | Jacob L. Bean, University of Chicago | Revealing the Diversity of Super-Earth Atmospheres |
| 13050 | Remco van den Bosch, Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Heidelberg | The Most Massive Black Holes in Small Galaxies |
| 13062 | Howard E. Bond, Space Telescope Science Institute | HST Observations of Astrophysically Important Visual Binaries |
GO 12181: The Atmospheric Structure of Giant Hot Exoplanets
Probing the atmosphere of a transiting exoplanet |
The first exoplanet, 51 Peg b, was discovered through radial velocity measurements in 1995. 51 Pegb was followed by a trickle, and then a flood of other discoveries, as astronomers realised that there were other solar systems radically different from our own, where "hot jupiters" led to short-period, high-amplitude velocity variations. Then, in 1999, came the inevitable discovery that one of those hot jupiters. HD 209458b, was in an orbit aligned with our line of sight to the star, resulting in transits. Since that date, the number of known transiting exoplanet systems has grown to more than 100, most detected through wide-field photometric surveys with the Kepler satellite providing the highest sensitivity dataset. These transiting systems are invaluable, since they not only provide unambiguous measurements of mass and diameter, but they also provide an opportunity to probe the atmospheric structure by differencing spectra taken during and between primary secondary transit. Such observations are best done from space: indeed, the only successful atmospheric observations to date have been with HST and Spitzer. The present program aims to set these measurements on a systematic basis by targeting 13 transiting exoplanets. The WFC3-IR G141 grism will be used to search for characteristic near-infrared spectral features in those systems. |
GO 12471: The Bottom of the Iceberg: Faint z~2 Galaxies and the Enrichment of the IGM
WFC3 grism imaging of a section of the GOODS-North field |
Observations with the Hubble telescope have impacted many science areas, but probably none more so than investigations of galaxy formation and evolution in the high redshift universe. Deep field images, starting with the oroginal HDF and progressing through the HDF-South, GOODS-North and South, the Ultra-Deep Field and the infrared UDF, have been coupled with observations at other wavelengths from space and ground to probe galaxy structure at redshifts extending to z=9 and beyond. Most analyses of galaxy evolution as a function of redshift favour the general conclusion that the global star formation rate peaked at redshifts in the range z=2 to 3. Extensive star formation in proto-galaxies at those redshifts leads to extensive gaseous outflows and strong interactions. The present program aims to build on past research by using the spectroscopic capabilities offered by the WFC3-IR grism to survey fields centred on 15 high-redshift QSOs whose spectra have been used to probe the line-of-sight structure of the intergalactic medium. The grism observations will permit dientification of fainter galaxies that may be associated with the strong absorbers detected in the QSO spectra. |
GO 12546: The Geometry and Kinematics of the Local Volume
A projection onto the supergalactic plane of the distribution of galaxies in the local volume (from The Atlas of the Universe ) |
The distribution of galaxies within the local universe provides a map of the local gravitational field, and potential insight into the evolutionary history of local structure. Reliable distances have been determined to most of the larger systems within that volume, but there are many lower-mass galaxies whose distances are still uncertain to factors of 3 to 5. Over the years, a wider range of distance estimators has been put in play to amp the distribution, with techniques ranging from detailed determinations of variable star light curves (Cepheids, RR Lyraes, Pop II Cepheids, long period variables and miras) to measuring the surface brihtness fluctuations of largely-unresolved stellar populatios. One of the most-used, and reasonably effective, methods is to determine the brightness of the tip of the first red giant branch in the colour-magnitude diagram. Stars evolving up the red giant branch undergo hydrogen shell burning; that terminates when the helium core ignites; the location of that ignition is only weakly dependent on stellar composition; and the location of the tip can be determined by constructing a luminosity function for red giant branch stars, since asymptotic giant branch (second gioant branch) stars are much less frequent, leading to a sharp drop in number density at higher luminosities. That measurement demands observations that resolve individual stars in these galaxies, and HST is the most effective means of obtaining such high angular resoluton data. The present program is a SNAP survey focused primarily on galaxies believed to lie at distances between 4 and 7 Mpc. The Advanced Camera for Surveys is being used to F660W and F814W images for those targets, permitting construction of (I, (V-I)) colour-magnitude diagrams for the older stellar population in those systems. |
 Nicmos image of aurorae on Uranus |
The atmospheres of the gas giant planets in the solar system are dynamic entities that can exhibit dramatic changes over a variety of timescales. Those changes are most apparent in Jovian atmosphere, which displays a wide variety of bands and spots, reflecting complex meteorological phenomena (see, e.g., previous ACS observations of the upper atmosphere and of the new little red spot ). This is not surprising since Jupiter atmosphere receives the highest input of solar energy. However, secular variations are also evident in the atmospheres of the outer planets, albeit usually at a more subtle level.The present program focuses on observations of Uranus, using UV/optical spectroscopy with STIS and narrowband imagign with WFC3 to probe the cloud and haze structure within the its atmosphere. These observatiosn will be matched against similar data from 2002 to search for significant changes since Uranus' transition through the quinox in 2008. In particular, the 825 nm region will be probed for absorption signatures due to methane and hydrogen, |