| Program Number | Principal Investigator | Program Title |
|---|---|---|
| 14114 | Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University | A Wide-Field WFC3 Imaging Survey in the COSMOS Field |
| 14119 | Luciana C. Bianchi, The Johns Hopkins University | Understanding Stellar Evolution of Intermediate-Mass Stars from a New Sample of SiriusB-Like Binaries |
| 14251 | Amy E. Reines, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, AURA | The Structures of Dwarf Galaxies Hosting Massive Black Holes |
| 14594 | Rich Bielby, Durham Univ. | QSAGE: QSO Sightline And Galaxy Evolution |
| 14606 | Brooke Devlin Simmons, University of California - San Diego | Secular Black Hole Growth and Feedback in Merger-Free Galaxies |
| 14618 | Michael Shara, American Museum of Natural History | Ultraviolet Flashers in M87: Rapidly Recurring Novae as SNIa Progenitors |
| 14620 | Ryan F Trainor, Franklin and Marshall College | QSO and Galaxy Growth Probed by Faint Lya-Emitters |
| 14633 | Kevin France, University of Colorado at Boulder | A SNAP UV Spectroscopic Study of Star-Planet Interactions |
| 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 |
| 14646 | Siyi Xu, European Southern Observatory - Germany | A White Dwarf with an Actively Disintegrating Asteroid |
| 14658 | Eric W. Peng, Peking University | Massive Star Clusters and the Origin of Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies |
| 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 |
| 14704 | Charlie Conroy, Harvard University | A Year in the Whirlpool |
| 14708 | Smita Mathur, The Ohio State University | Probing the circumgalactic medium of galaxies with deep observations. |
| 14718 | George D. Becker, University of California - Riverside | The Metal-Enriched Environments of Galaxies Near Reionization |
| 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 |
| 14772 | Bart P. Wakker, University of Wisconsin - Madison | Observing gas in Cosmic Web filaments to constrain simulations of cosmic structure formation |
| 14779 | Melissa Lynn Graham, University of Washington | A NUV Imaging Survey for Circumstellar Material in Type Ia Supernovae |
| 14812 | Walter Peter Maksym, Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory | Long-Term Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of a Tidal Disruption Event at only 90 Mpc |
| 14840 | Andrea Bellini, Space Telescope Science Institute | Schedule Gap Pilot |
| 14885 | Fred Hamann, University of California - Riverside | Monitoring the Extraordinary Transient Outflow in the Quasar PG1411+442 |
| 14894 | Paul A. Wilson, CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris | Observing the Beta Pic Hill sphere transit in the far-UV |
| 14915 | Laura Kreidberg, Harvard University | First Atmosphere Characterization of the Benchmark Exo-Neptune WASP-107b |
| 14917 | Vincent Bourrier, Observatoire de Geneve | What is the origin of the UV-absorbing cloud orbiting the iconic star 55 Cnc ? |
| 14920 | Benjamin Boizelle, University of California - Irvine | Precision Measurement of the Black Hole Mass in NGC 3258 |
| 14922 | Patrick Kelly, University of California - Berkeley | Probing the Nature of Dark Matter with Individual Stars Highly Magnified by a Galaxy Cluster |
| 14927 | Renyu Hu, Jet Propulsion Laboratory | First Transmission Spectrum of a Cold, Water-Cloud Gas Giant Planet |
| 14928 | Keith S. Noll, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | Orbit of the Patroclus-Menoetius Binary, a Lucy Mission Target |
GO 14251: The Structure of Dwarf Galaxies Hosting massive Black Holes
The galaxy RRG 118, a dwarf system harbourijng a 50,000 solar mass black hole |
Massive black holes are believed to have their origin in the early universe, forming as seeds that grow as they accrete more and more material, and generally reaching the present day poised within the core of a surrounding galactic system. Supermassive black holes are found in the central regions of the most massive galaxies, notably giant ellipticals at the centre of galaxy clusters. However, receont observations have produced strong evidence that massive black holes can be harboured in the central regions of much smaller galaxies. X-ray surveys have revealed bright point-like sources at the centre of dwarf galaxies. The most reasonable explanation is that we are seeing emission from hot gas being accreted onto the central black hole. Measurements of the gas dynamics suggest that the central mass rises as high as 50,000 solar masses. The present program will obtain WFC3-IR snapshots of up to 61 dwarf systems, with the aim of characterising the structural properties of those systems, and matching those data against observations of non-active systems to search for systematic differences. |
GO 14779: A NUV Imaging Survey for Circumstellar Material in Type Ia Supernovae
A recent supernova in M100 |
Supernovae mark the (spectacular) evolutionary endpoint for a subset of stellar systems. The final stages of evolution (or, more accurately, disruption) see the system eject substgantial masses of material into the interstellar medium. In at least some systems, those ejecta interact with circumstellar material produced during the evolutionary phases immediately prior to the system becoming a supernova. Theoretical expectations are that around 20% of SNe should possess such materials, but the expected iteractions have only brrn observed rarely. This may be because the material lies at relatively large distances from the star leading to longer lead times (>1 year) before the interactions. The present program aims to test this hypothesis through NUV snapshot observations with the WFC3/UVIS camera, targetting the sites of supernovae that erupted from 1 to 3 years ago. |
GO 14646: A White Dwarf with an Actively Disintegrating Asteroid
Artist's impression of a comet spiralling in to the white dwarf variable, G29-38 |
During the 1980s, one of the techniques used to search for brown dwarfs was to obtain near-infrared photometry of white dwarf stars. White dwarfs are hot (5,000 to 15,000K for the typical targets), but they are also small (Earth-sized), so they have low luminosities; consequently, a low-mass companion should be detected as excess flux at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. In 1988, Ben Zuckerman and Eric Becklin detected just this kind of excess around the DA white dwarf G29-38. However, the excess peaks at longer wavelengths than would be expected for a white dwarf; rather, G 29-38 is surrounded by a dusty disk. Given the orbital lifetimes, those dust particles must be regularly replenished, presumably from rocky remnants of a solar system. G 29-38 stood as a lone prototype for almost 2 decades, until a handful of other dusty white dwarfs were identified from Spitzer observations within the last couple of years.In subsequent years, a significant number of DA white dwarfs have been found to exhibit narrow metallic absorption lines in their spectra. Those lines are generally attributed to "pollution" of the white dwarf atmospheres. Given that the diffusion time for metals within the atmospheres is short (tens to hundreds of years), the only reasonable means of maintaining such lines in ~20% of the DA population is to envisage continuous accretion from a surrounding debris disk. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is an ideal instrument for probing the abundance of trace elements in white dwarfs atmospheres: more than 70 systems have been observed, with detection rates running at around 50%. The present program focuses on the DB white dwarf WD1145+017. High precision photometric observations obtained by Kepler as part of its extended mission show clear evidence for transiting material, with at least 6 objects/clumps in orbits with periods of a few hours. These obejcts are most likely the remnants of a disrupted asteroid. The present program will combine COS observations with ground-based measurements to monitor the system and probe its composition. |
GO 14704: A Year in the Whirlpool
The Whirlpool galaxy, M51 |
NGC 5194, the Whirlpool galaxy, is a grand design spiral galaxy with an interacting lower-mass companion, NGC 5195, lying at a distaince of ~7 Mpc from the Milky Way. Originally catalogued as the 51st obect in Charles Messier's list of non-comets, its spiral nature was first discerned by visual observations using the Earl of Rosse's Leviathan of Parsontown. With its clearly deefined spiral structure, M 51 is a prime target for star formation investigations. The present program aims to probe the star formation history by mapping the number and distribution of asymptotic giant branch long period variable (AGB LPV) stars. or miras. These LPV have periods ranging from ~150 days to more than 500 days, and there are well determined correlations between the periodicity and the mass (and hence age) of the individual stars. with such long periods, obervations need to be spaced over a correspondingly long time frame, and the present program schedules observations at 34 epochs over a full year. |