| Program Number | Principal Investigator | Program Title |
|---|---|---|
| 14072 | Martha L. Boyer, Space Telescope Science Institute | The Evolution of Metal-rich Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars |
| 14096 | Dan Coe, Space Telescope Science Institute - ESA | RELICS: Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey |
| 14127 | Michele Fumagalli, Durham Univ. | First Measurement of the Small Scale Structure of Circumgalactic Gas via Grism Spectra of Close Quasar Pairs |
| 14163 | Mickael Rigault, Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin | Honing Type Ia Supernovae as Distance Indicators, Exploiting Environmental Bias for H0 and w. |
| 14181 | S Thomas Megeath, University of Toledo | A Snapshot WFC3 IR Survey of Spitzer/Hershel-Identified Protostars in Nearby Molecular Clouds |
| 14260 | Drake Deming, University of Maryland | A Metallicity and Cloud Survey of Exoplanetary Atmospheres Prior to JWST |
| 14594 | Rich Bielby, Durham Univ. | QSAGE: QSO Sightline And Galaxy Evolution |
| 14602 | Jay Christopher Howk, University of Notre Dame | The Perseus Project: Probing Metal Mixing, Dust Destruction, and Kinematics in the Vertical Extension of the Perseus Arm |
| 14606 | Brooke Devlin Simmons, University of California - San Diego | Secular Black Hole Growth and Feedback in Merger-Free Galaxies |
| 14608 | Nadia L Zakamska, The Johns Hopkins University | Host galaxies of high-redshift quasars with extreme outflows |
| 14618 | Michael Shara, American Museum of Natural History | Ultraviolet Flashers in M87: Rapidly Recurring Novae as SNIa Progenitors |
| 14622 | Katherine E. Whitaker, University of Connecticut | A Chance Alignment: Resolving a Massive Compact Galaxy Actively Quenching at z=1.8 |
| 14626 | Mary Barsony, SETI Institute | DASH Mapping of IC348: The IMF from 2 to 80 Jupiter Masses |
| 14634 | Denis C Grodent, Universite de Liege | HST-Juno synergistic approach of Jupiter's magnetosphere and ultraviolet auroras |
| 14636 | Igor Dmitrievich Karachentsev, Russian Academy of Sciences, Special Astrophysical Obs. | TRGB Distances to the Edge Between the Local Sheet and Virgo Infall: Last of the Low Hanging Fruit |
| 14637 | Knox S. Long, Eureka Scientific Inc. | Wide band spectra of nova-like variables: A confrontation of observations with theory |
| 14641 | Edward M. Sion, Villanova University | Short Orbital Period Recurrent Novae as Supernovae Type Ia Progenitors |
| 14648 | Adam Riess, The Johns Hopkins University | A New Threshold of Precision, 30 micro-arcsecond Parallaxes and Beyond |
| 14649 | Katherine Anne Alatalo, Carnegie Institution of Washington | Opening a New Window into Galaxy Evolution Through the Lens of CO-detected Shocked Poststarburst Galaxies |
| 14654 | Peter Milne, University of Arizona | A Second Ladder: Testing for Bias in the Type Ia Distance Scale with SBF |
| 14672 | Ruth C. Peterson, SETI Institute | Tracing the Earliest Nucleosynthesis from Elements Just Past the Iron Peak in Extremely Metal-Poor Dwarfs |
| 14675 | Julia Christine Roman-Duval, Space Telescope Science Institute - ESA | Metal Evolution and TrAnsport in the Large Magellanic Cloud (METAL): Probing Dust Evolution in Star Forming Galaxies |
| 14682 | Bjoern Benneke, California Institute of Technology | A Search for Methane, Ammonia, and Water on Two Habitable Zone Super-Earths |
| 14687 | Andrew J. Fox, Space Telescope Science Institute - ESA | The Origin of the Leading Arm of the Magellanic Stream |
| 14703 | Andrea Banzatti, | Measuring residual H2 gas from small to large gaps in protoplanetary disks: different pathways to planets? |
| 14705 | Martin A. Cordiner, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | Confirming interstellar C60+ using a new method for high signal-to-noise NIR STIS spectroscopy |
| 14710 | Antonino Paolo Milone, Australian National University | Multiple Stellar Populations in Young Magellanic Cloud Clusters |
| 14711 | R. Michael Rich, University of California - Los Angeles | A Deep WFC3/IR Bulge Luminosity Function: toward the Hydrogen Burning Limit |
| 14754 | Crystal Linn Martin, University of California - Santa Barbara | Confronting the 3D Orientation of Galactic Disks in Space: Disk Structure vs. Circumgalactic Gas Flows |
| 14762 | Justyn Robert Maund, University of Sheffield | A UV census of the sites of core-collapse supernovae |
| 14779 | Melissa Lynn Graham, University of Washington | A NUV Imaging Survey for Circumstellar Material in Type Ia Supernovae |
| 14788 | Thomas R. Ayres, University of Colorado at Boulder | Alpha Centauri at a Crossroads |
| 14807 | Elena Sabbi, Space Telescope Science Institute | The primordial binary fraction in the young massive cluster Westerlund 2 |
| 14808 | Nao Suzuki, Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe | SUbaru Supernovae with Hubble Infrared (SUSHI) |
| 14840 | Andrea Bellini, Space Telescope Science Institute | Schedule Gap Pilot |
GO 14096: RELICS: Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey
Hubble image and mass map for the cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915, one of the clusters included in the RELICS program |
The overwhelming majority of galaxies in the universe are found in clusters. As such, those 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. The present program builds on the highly successful CLASH program,which used 17-colour ACS/WFC3 images to map 25 galaxy clusters, tracing the mas profile and the dark matter distribution, and the Frontier Fields program, targeting six clusters for deep multi-colour imaging. RELICS is focused on using massive galaxy clusters as gravitational telescopes, searching for strongly lensed background galaxies drawn from the high redshift universe. Imaging 46 fields in 41 galaxy clusters, this program aims to identify galaxies with redshifts in the range 9 < z < 12. By targeting strongly-lensing clusters, standard models for galaxy evolution suggest that the program can deliver ~100 galaxies in that redshift range, together with more than 150 galaxies at z~8. A significant number of these galaxies should be brighter than H~25.5, and therefore accessible to more detailed follow-up observations. Conversely, the actual number of galaxies detected will set constraints on the galaxy number-redshift distribution, and the overall formation and assembly history. |
GO 14654: A Second Ladder: Testing for Bias in the Type Ia Distance Scale with SBF
Simulations of a nearby dwarf galaxy, a nearby giant galaxy and a distant giant galaxy; note that
the last is similar in angular size to the dwarf, but has a much smoother brightness distribution
(simulations from Ned Wright's ABC of distances
|
The determination of the cosmic distance ccale remains one of the major goals of cosmological programs in the early 21st century. Achieving this goal requires reliable distance indicators. Type Ia supernovae have come to serve in that role at moderate to high redshifts, but the zeropoint of that scale still depends on local calibrators where more traditional distance indicators still play a major role. While observing programs continue to pursue conventional primary distance indicators (such as RR Lyraes and Cepheids) and secondary distance indicators (such as the RGB tip and the Tully-Fisher relation), attention is also being given to the method of surface brightness fluctuations. This method rests primarily on the hypothesis that the stellar populations in most galaxies have similar colour-magnitude diagrams. Thus, the total luminosity of the galaxy is generated by similar stars - mainly red giants. In a nearby low-luminosity galaxy, most of the light comes from a relatively small number of giant branch stars; consequently, that galaxy has a "grainier" appearance than a distant high-luminosity galaxy of the same apparent magnitude. The degree of granularity can therefore serve as a distance indicator. The present program will use the IR channel of Wide-Field Camera 3 (F110W filter) to observe 20 galaxies that have hosted type Ia supernovae, with the goal testing the consistency of the SN Ia luminosities in these relatively nearby systems. |
GO 14682: A Search for Methane, Ammonia, and Water on Two Habitable Zone Super-Earths
Artist's impression of a planet an M dwarf system |
The first exoplanet, 51 Peg b, was discovered through radial velocity measurements in 1995. The succeeding two decades saw first 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. In 1999 the first transiting system, HD 209458b, was discovered.Increasing precision led to discoveries of lower mass planets and systems around lower-mass stars. The Kepler satellite, in particular, has made major contributions in this area, adding close to 3,000 confirmed exoplanets, both in its original incarnation and more recently in the extended Kepler 2 mission. These transiting systems are invaluable not only in providing unambiguous measurements of mass and diameter, but also in providing 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 current program focuses on two "super-Earths" discovered in the Kepler 2 survey: K2-3d (1.6 Earth radii, 11.1 Earth masses) and K2-18b (2.24 Earth radii, no precise mass). In both cases, the parent star is an M-dwarf: K2-3 is one of three planets circling an M0 dwarf lying at a distance of ~40 parsecs; K2-18b is the as-yet only known companion of a more distant M0 dwarf. Both planets have orbits that lie within the nominal habitable zones of the parent stars. The present program will use the WFC3/IR grisms to map the near-IR spectral energy distribution through several transits, searching for characteristic features due to water, ammonia and (perhaps) methane, probing the relative atmospheric structure of these systems. |
GO 14788: Alpha Centauri at a Crossroads
The Sun's surface close to solar maximum |
It is well known that the Sun follows an 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, during which time the frequency of spots, plages and flares rises and falls. That cycle also manifests itself in the global properties in terms of X-ray flux and the strength of chromospheric emission. Similar periodic trends have been detected in many nearby sun-like stars, indicating that those systems also follow activity cycles. Among the stars studied in this manner are Alpha Centauri A and B, the brightest stars in the Sun's nearest neighbour. Both stars have been monitored in detail from Earth and space, with X-ray observations having been obtained on a regular basis since 2002. Those observations show that Alpha Cen A (spectral type G2) varies over a ~12-13 year cycle, and is currently approaching maximum activity, while Alpha Cen B (K1) has a shorter period (~9 years) and is now close to minimum. The present program will continue to monitor the changes in activity, combining far-UV spectra taken using the Space Telescope Imagign Spectrograph with X-ray measurements with the Chandra X-ray observatory. |