| Program Number | Principal Investigator | Program Title |
|---|---|---|
| 13314 | Sanchayeeta Borthakur, The Johns Hopkins University | Characterizing the Elusive Intragroup Medium and Its Role in Galaxy Evolution |
| 13647 | Ryan Foley, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign | Testing the Standardizability of Type Ia Supernovae with the Cepheid Distance of a Twin Supernova |
| 13655 | Matthew Hayes, Stockholm University | How Lyman alpha bites/beats the dust |
| 13657 | Jeyhan Kartaltepe, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, AURA | Probing the Most Luminous Galaxies in the Universe at the Peak of Galaxy Assembly |
| 13660 | Ming Zhao, The Pennsylvania State University | Near-IR spectroscopy of the newly discovered benchmark hot Jupiter WASP-103b |
| 13661 | Matthew Auger, University of Cambridge | A SHARP View of the Structure and Evolution of Normal and Compact Early-type Galaxies |
| 13667 | Marc W. Buie, Southwest Research Institute | Observations of the Pluto System During the New Horizons Encounter Epoch |
| 13671 | Harald Ebeling, University of Hawaii | Beyond MACS: A Snapshot Survey of the Most Massive Clusters of Galaxies at z>0.5 |
| 13676 | Eileen T Meyer, University of Maryland Baltimore County | Solving the X-ray Origin Problem in Kiloparsec-Scale Relativistic Jets: Hubble Provides the Missing Key |
| 13691 | Wendy L. Freedman, University of Chicago | CHP-II: The Carnegie Hubble Program to Measure Ho to 3% Using Population II |
| 13695 | Benne W. Holwerda, Sterrewacht Leiden | STarlight Absorption Reduction through a Survey of Multiple Occulting Galaxies (STARSMOG) |
| 13713 | Bruno Sicardy, Observatoire de Paris | Observation of Chariklo's rings |
| 13720 | Stephen E. Zepf, Michigan State University | Testing Models of the Black-Hole X-ray Source in the NGC4472 Globular Cluster RZ2109 with COS UV Spectroscopy |
| 13721 | Robert A. Benjamin, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater | The Windy Milky Way Galaxy |
| 13741 | Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul | Constraining the structure of the Narrow-Line Region of nearby QSO2s |
| 13750 | John M. Cannon, Macalester College | Fundamental Parameters of the SHIELD II Galaxies |
| 13759 | Juan P. Madrid, Gemini Observatory, Southern Operations | Extreme Variability in the M87 Jet |
| 13767 | Michele Trenti, University of Melbourne | Bright Galaxies at Hubble's Detection Frontier: The redshift z~9-10 BoRG pure-parallel survey |
| 13776 | Michael D. Gregg, University of California - Davis | Completing The Next Generation Spectral Library |
| 13779 | Sangeeta Malhotra, Arizona State University | The Faint Infrared Grism Survey (FIGS) |
| 13790 | Steven A. Rodney, The Johns Hopkins University | Frontier Field Supernova Search |
| 13801 | Varsha Kulkarni, University of South Carolina Research Foundation | Probing Structure in Cold Gas at z <~ 1 with Gravitationally Lensed Quasar Sightlines |
| 13816 | Misty C. Bentz, Georgia State University Research Foundation | High-Resolution Imaging of Active Galaxies with Direct Black Hole Mass Measurements |
| 13819 | Trent J. Dupuy, University of Texas at Austin | Dynamical Masses for Free-Floating Planetary-Mass Binaries |
| 13828 | Steve Shore, Universita di Pisa | Late nebular stage high resolution UV spectroscopy of classical Galactic novae: a benchmark panchromatic archive for nova evolution |
| 13838 | Xuan Fang, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) | UV Mapping of the Shocks in the Extremely Collimated Outflows of the Proto-Planetary Nebula Hen 3-1475 |
| 13842 | Frederick Hamann, University of Florida | Testing the Youth and Transition Object Status of FeLoBAL Quasars |
| 13852 | Rongmon Bordoloi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | How Galaxy Mergers Affect Their Environment: Mapping the Multiphase Circumgalactic Medium of Close Kinematic Pairs |
| 13856 | Denija Crnojevic, Texas Tech University | Resolving the faint end of the satellite luminosity function for the nearest elliptical Centaurus A |
| 13943 | Amy E. Reines, University of Michigan | Probing the Growth of Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies with Chandra and HST |
| 13944 | Jenny E. Greene, Princeton University | Extended X-ray Emission From A Quasar-Driven Superbubble |
GO 13657: Probing the Most Luminous Galaxies in the Universe at the Peak of Galaxy Assembly
Hubble ACS image of the GOODS field
Deep imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer have shown that the peak star formation epoch for
galaxy evolution lay arond redshift z~2. The most luminous galaxies at that epoch are luminous, ultraluminous
and hyperluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs). These are systems that have total luminosities that exceed
1011.4 LSun (LIRGs),1011.2 LSun (ULIRGs), or 1013 LSun (HyLIRGs),
with most energy emitted at wavelengths longward
of 10 microns. Some of these systems are interacting or merging disk
galaxies, with the excess infrared luminosity generated by warm dust associated with
the extensive star formation regions. There is some controversy, however, regarding whether mergers are the only
means of producing such systems, or whether teady processes, such as accretion of cold gas along filaments, might
also produce very high luminosity, star-formign systems. The present program aims to tackle this
question through high-resolution near-infrared imaging of HyLIRGS with the WFC3-IR camera, searching for unambiguous merger
signatures. Those observations will be combined with kinematic data obtained with ground-based Integral Field Units to
determine the likely fraction of mergers among these systems.
GO 13713: Observation of Chariklo's rings
The location of the ring system surrounding the centaur, Chariklo |
Ring systems are features of all of the gas giants in the Solar System. Saturn's rings are the most prominent, evident to Galileo even if he was unable to discern their nature; the Uranian rings were discovered through stellar occultation measurements in 1977; Neptune's ring system was revealed in a similar manner in the 1980s; and Jupiter's rings were identified by Voyager 1 in 1979. In each case, the rings are believed to be comprised of small particles of rock, ice and dust that are sustained through collisions and maintained in place by gravitational interactions with larger satellites. One other body is known to have a ring system - the asteroid, Chariklo. In contrast to the gas giants, Chariklo is a centaur, a minor planet orbiting between Uranus and Saturn with a diameter of only ~230 km. centaurs are belived to originate in the Kuiper belt and are in dynamically unstable orbits that may lead to ejection from the Solar System. Chariklo occulted a background star in 2013, and the observations revealed the presence of two rings, ~7 and ~3 km wide and ~9 km apart. These rings are hpothesised to include at least some water ice particles; previous spectroscopic observations had shown variable water-ice features, together with photometric variability, that could be explained if the rings were edge-on to earth at that epoch. Th existence of a ring system in such a small body is extremely unexpected, and the system is likely to have a dynamical lifetime of only a few million years. The present prorgam aims to image the rings directly through deep imaging with the UVIS camera on WFC3. |
GO 13790: Frontier Field Supernova Search
Finding chart for the multiply imaged supernova, SN Refsdal, discovered in November 2014 in cluster MACJ1149 |
The overwhelming majority of galaxies in the universe are found in clusters. As such, these systems offer an important means of tracing the development of large-scale structure through the history of the universe. Moreover, as intense concentrations of mass, galaxy clusters provide highly efficient gravitational lenses, capable of concentrating and magnifying light from background high redshift galaxies to allow detailed spectropic investigations of star formation in the early universe. Hubble imaging has already revealed lensed arcs and detailed sub-structure within a handful of rich clusters. At the same time, the lensing characteristics provide information on the mass distribution within the lensing cluster. Hubble is currently undertaking deep imaging observations of up to 6 galaxy clusters as part of the Frontier Fields Director's Time program (GO 13495/13496). Those observations have provided a basis for several synergistic programs. The present program is using the Frontier Field observations to search for supernovae at high redshifts, z> 1.5, aiming to set further constraints on dark energy and probing the frequency of supernovae as a function of redshift, the delay time and hence the likely progenitors. Recent observations of the fourth cluster, MACSJ1149.5+2223, resulted in the detection of a particularly unusual object - multiple lensed images of a supernova in a redshift z=1.49 galaxy that is itself multiply lensed. Each of those images results from light following a different path due to the gravitational potential of the foreground cluster and galaxies. Dubbed Supernova Refsdahl, after the gravitational lensing pioneer, the present program is continuing to obtain follow-up observations to monitor the light-curves of each component, hence determining the time-delay for each light path. Those measured delays can be matched against the predictions of gravitational lensing models. Moreover, since the galaxy itself has multiple images it is possible that future observations may detect images of the supernova in other components. Thus, this supernova can (perhaps even will) be discovered more than once - and might even be predicted. |
GO 13819: Dynamical Masses for Free-Floating Planetary-Mass Binaries
Epsilon Indi Bab, the binary brown dwarf companion of the nearby K dwarf |
Brown dwarfs are objects that form like stars, but lack sufficient mass to drive the central temperature above a few million degrees, and therefore never succeed in igniting core hydrogen fusion. Discovered in the mid-1990s, these objects initially have surface temperatures of ~3,500K, but cool rapidly and move through spectral types M, L, T and Y. Following their discovery, considerable theoretical attention has focused on the evolution of their intrinsic properties, particularly the details of the atmospheric changes in the evolution from type L through T to Y and beyond. The initial transition marks the emergence of methane as a dominant absorber at near-infrared wavelengths, while ammonia becomes increasingly apparent in the coolest dwarfs identified by the WISE mission. Current models suggest that the L to T transition occurs at ~1400-1200K, while the T to Y transition occurs around 600K. The spectral changes are at least correlated with, and perhaps driven by, the distribution and properties of dust layers ("clouds"). The overall timescales associated with this process remains unclear. Mass is a crucial factor in mapping those changes, but mass is also the most difficult quantity to measure in a reliable fashion. The present proposal tackles this issue through astrometry of ultracool binary systems, deriving the orbits and hence dynamical masses. The four targets in this multi-year program include two late-T/Y dwarf binaries, whose masses are expected to lie in the range 5 to 15 jupiter masses. |