HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4175 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 10, 2006 (DOY 222) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10860 The largest Kuiper belt object The past year has seen an explosion in the discoveries of Pluto-sized objects in the Kuiper belt. With the discoveries of the methane-covered 2003 UB313 and 2005 FY9, the multiple satellite system of 2003 EL61, and the Pluto-Charon analog system of Orcus and its satellite, it is finally apparent that Pluto is ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4174 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 09, 2006 (DOY 221) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC/WFC 10733 CCD Hot Pixel Annealing Hot pixel annealing will continue to be performed once every 4 weeks. The CCD TECs will be turned off and heaters will be activated to bring the detector temperatures to about +20C. This state will be held for approximately 6 hours, after which the heaters are turned off, the TECs turned on, and the CCDs returned ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4173 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 08, 2006 (DOY 220) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/WFC 10546 The filaments of NGC1275 The spectacular H-0alpha filaments stretching over 100 kpc around the central galaxy in the nearby Perseus cluster of galaxies, NGC1275, resemble those found around distant radio galaxies and some protogalaxies. The origin and ionization of the filaments are poorly understood and relate to heating and cooling proces ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4172 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 07, 2006 (DOY 219) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/WFC 10880 The host galaxies of QSO2s: AGN feeding and evolution at high luminosities Now that the presence of supermassive black holes in the nuclei of galaxies is a well established fact, other questions related to the AGN phenomena still have to be answered. Problems of particular interest are how the AGN gets fed, how the black hole evolves and how ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4171 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 4,5,6, 2006 (DOY 216,217,218) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8794 NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 5 A new procedure proposed to alleviate the CR-persistence problem of NICMOS. Dark frames will be obtained immediately upon exiting the SAA contour 23, and every time a NICMOS exposure is scheduled within 50 minutes of coming out of the SAA. The darks will be obtained in p ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4170 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 3, 2006 (DOY 215) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10800 Kuiper Belt Binaries: Probes of Early Solar System Evolution Binaries in the Kuiper Belt are a scientific windfall: in them we have relatively fragile test particles which can be used as tracers of the early dynamical evolution of the outer Solar System. We propose to continue a Snapshot program using the ACS/HRC that has a demonstrated di ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4169 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 2, 2006 (DOY 214) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10738 Earth Flats Sky flats will be obtained by observing the bright Earth with the HRC and WFC. These observations will be used to verify the accuracy of the flats currently in the pipeline and to monitor any changes. Weekly coronagraphic monitoring is required to assess the changing position of the spots. ACS/HRC 10800 Kuiper Belt Binaries: P ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT         # 4168 PERIOD COVERED:  UT  August 1, 2006 (DOY 213) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/WFC 10829 Secular Evolution at the End of the Hubble Sequence The bulgeless disk galaxies at the end of the Hubble Sequence evolve at a glacial pace relative to their more violent, earlier-type cousins. The causes of their internal, or secular evolution are important because secular evolution represen ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT         # 4167 PERIOD COVERED:  UT  July 31, 2006 (DOY 212) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC/WFC 10758 ACS CCDs daily monitor This program consists of a set of basic tests to monitor, the read noise, the development of hot pixels and test for any source of noise in ACS CCD detectors. The files, biases and dark will be used to create reference files for science calibration. This programme w ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT         #  4166 PERIOD COVERED:  UT  July 28,29,30 2006 (DOY 209,210,211) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8794 NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 5 A new procedure proposed to alleviate the CR-persistence problem of NICMOS. Dark frames will be obtained immediately upon exiting the SAA contour 23, and every time a NICMOS exposure is scheduled within 50 minutes of ...Continue Reading