HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science



DAILY REPORT #5137



PERIOD COVERED: 5am July 13 - 5am July 14, 2010 (DOY 194/09:00z-195/09:00z)



FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:



Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary reports

of potential non-nominal performance that will be investigated.)



HSTARS: (None)



COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)



COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)



SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSAcq 10 10

FGS REAcq 8 8

OBAD with Maneuver 7 7



SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)





OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED:



ACS/WFC3 11599



Distances of Planetary Nebulae from SNAPshots of Resolved Companions



Reliable distances to individual planetary nebulae (PNe) in the Milky

Way are needed to advance our understanding of their spatial

distribution, birthrates, influence on galactic chemistry, and the

luminosities and evolutionary states of their central stars (CSPN). Few

PNe have good distances, however. One of the best ways to remedy this

problem is to find resolved physical companions to the CSPN and measure

their distances by photometric main-sequence fitting. We have previously

used HST to identify and measure probable companions to 10 CSPN, based

on angular separations and statistical arguments only. We now propose to

use HST to re-observe 48 PNe from that program for which additional

companions are possibly present. We then can use the added criterion of

common proper motion to confirm our original candidate companions and

identify new ones in cases that could not confidently be studied before.

We will image the region around each CSPN in the V and I bands, and in

some cases in the B band. Field stars that appear close to the CSPN by

chance will be revealed by their relative proper motion during the 13+

years since our original survey, leaving only genuine physical

companions in our improved and enlarged sample. This study will increase

the number of Galactic PNe with reliable distances by 50 percent and

improve the distances to PNe with previously known companions.



COS/FUV 11687



SNAPing Coronal Iron



This is a Snapshot Survey to explore two forbidden lines of highly

ionized iron in late-type coronal sources. Fe XII 1349 (T~ 2 MK) and Fe

XXI 1354 (T~ 10 MK) -- well known to Solar Physics -- have been detected

in about a dozen cool stars, mainly with HST/STIS. The UV coronal

forbidden lines are important because they can be observed with velocity

resolution of better than 15 km/s, whereas even the state-of-the-art

X-ray spectrometers on Chandra can manage only 300 km/s in the kilovolt

band where lines of highly ionized iron more commonly are found. The

kinematic properties of hot coronal plasmas, which are of great interest

to theorists and modelers, thus only are accessible in the UV at

present. The bad news is that the UV coronal forbidden lines are faint,

and were captured only in very deep observations with STIS. The good

news is that 3rd-generation Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, slated for

installation in HST by SM4, in a mere 25 minute exposure with its G130M

mode can duplicate the sensitivity of a landmark 25-orbit STIS E140M

observation of AD Leo, easily the deepest such exposure of a late-type

star so far. Our goal is to build up understanding of the properties of

Fe XII and Fe XXI in additional objects beyond the current limited

sample: how the lineshapes depend on activity, whether large scale

velocity shifts can be detected, and whether the dynamical content of

the lines can be inverted to map the spatial morphology of the stellar

corona (as in "Doppler Imaging''). In other words, we want to bring to

bear in the coronal venue all the powerful tricks of spectroscopic

remote sensing, well in advance of the time that this will be possible

exploiting the corona's native X-ray radiation. The 1290-1430 band

captured by side A of G130M also contains a wide range of key plasma

diagnostics that form at temperatures from below 10, 000 K (neutral

lines of CNO), to above 200, 000 K (semi-permitted O V 1371), including

the important bright multiplets of C II at 1335 and Si IV at 1400;

yielding a diagnostic gold mine for the subcoronal atmosphere. Because

of the broad value of the SNAP spectra, beyond the coronal iron project,

we waive the normal proprietary rights.



STIS/CC 11845



CCD Dark Monitor Part 2



Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.



STIS/CC 11847



CCD Bias Monitor-Part 2



Monitor the bias in the 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 bin settings at gain=1,

and 1x1 at gain = 4, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the

evolution of hot columns.



STIS/CCD 11721



Verifying the Utility of Type Ia Supernovae as Cosmological Probes:

Evolution and Dispersion in the Ultraviolet Spectra



The study of distant type Ia supernova (SNe Ia) offers the most

practical and immediate discriminator between popular models of dark

energy. Yet fundamental questions remain over possible

redshift-dependent trends in their observed and intrinsic properties.

High-quality Keck spectroscopy of a representative sample of 36

intermediate redshift SNe Ia has revealed a surprising, and unexplained,

diversity in their rest-frame UV fluxes. One possible explanation is

hitherto undiscovered variations in the progenitor metallicity.

Unfortunately, this result cannot be compared to local UV data as only

two representative SNe Ia have been studied near maximum light. Taking

advantage of two new `rolling searches' and the restoration of STIS, we

propose a non-disruptive TOO campaign to create an equivalent comparison

local sample. This will allow us to address possible evolution in the

mean UV spectrum and its diversity, an essential precursor to the study

of SNe beyond z~1.



STIS/CCD 11849



STIS CCD Hot Pixel Annealing



This purpose of this activity is to repair radiation induced hot pixel

damage to the STIS CCD by warming the CCD to the ambient instrument

temperature and annealing radiation-damaged pixels.



Radiation damage creates hot pixels in the STIS CCD Detector. Many of

these hot pixels can be repaired by warming the CCD from its normal

operating temperature near -83 deg. C to the ambient instrument

temperature (~ +5 deg. C) for several hours. The number of hot pixels

repaired is a function of annealing temperature. The effectiveness of

the CCD hot pixel annealing process is assessed by measuring the dark

current behavior before and after annealing and by searching for any

window contamination effects.



WFC3/IR 11931



IR Signal Non-Linearity Calibration



These observations will be used to quantify the non-linear signal

behavior of the IR channel, as well as to create the IR channel

non-linearity calibration reference file. The non-linearity behavior of

each pixel in the detector will be investigated through the use of flat

fields, while the photometric behavior of point sources will be studied

using observations of 47 Tuc.



WFC3/IR/S/C 11929



IR Dark Current Monitor



Analyses of ground test data showed that dark current signals are more

reliably removed from science data using darks taken with the same

exposure sequences as the science data, than with a single dark current

image scaled by desired exposure time. Therefore, dark current images

must be collected using all sample sequences that will be used in

science observations. These observations will be used to monitor changes

in the dark current of the WFC3-IR channel on a day-to-day basis, and to

build calibration dark current ramps for each of the sample sequences to

be used by Gos in Cycle 17. For each sample sequence/array size

combination, a median ramp will be created and delivered to the

calibration database system (CDBS).



WFC3/UV 12090



WFC3/UVIS Photometric Calibration - The Spatial Stability of the

Detector



The current WFC3 UVIS and IR calibrations are almost entirely based on

observations taken in small subarrays at the corners of UVIS1 and UVIS2,

and at the center of the IR detector. One of our filters, F336W, shows

higher than expected throughput in this filter by 4%. The source of this

has not been narrowed down and we need to determine whether the

photometry is consistent over the detector or if it is just the region

of the subarray (corner) that is showing higher counts. A preliminary

investigation suggests significant structure in the flat field for this

filter. We request two orbits to move a spectrophotometric standard,

GD153, in a small subarray over 23 dither positions on UVIS1 and UVIS2.

We note that F336W is one of the most popular filters on WFC3.



WFC3/UV/ACS/WFC/IR 12057



A Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury - I



We propose to image the north east quadrant of M31 to deep limits in the

UV, optical, and near-IR. HST imaging should resolve the galaxy into

more than 100 million stars, all with common distances and foreground

extinctions. UV through NIR stellar photometry (F275W, F336W with

WFC3/UVIS, F475W and F814W with ACS/WFC, and F110W and F160W with

WFC3/NIR) will provide effective temperatures for a wide range of

spectral types, while simultaneously mapping M31's extinction. Our

central science drivers are to: understand high-mass variations in the

stellar IMF as a function of SFR intensity and metallicity; capture the

spatially-resolved star formation history of M31; study a vast sample of

stellar clusters with a range of ages and metallicities. These are

central to understanding stellar evolution and clustered star formation;

constraining ISM energetics; and understanding the counterparts and

environments of transient objects (novae, SNe, variable stars, x-ray

sources, etc.). As its legacy, this survey adds M31 to the Milky Way and

Magellanic Clouds as a fundamental calibrator of stellar evolution and

star-formation processes for understanding the stellar populations of

distant galaxies. Effective exposure times are 977s in F275W, 1368s in

F336W, 4040s in F475W, 4042s in F814W, 699s in F110W, and 1796s in

F160W, including short exposures to avoid saturation of bright sources.

These depths will produce photon-limited images in the UV. Images will

be crowding-limited in the optical and NIR, but will reach below the red

clump at all radii. The images will reach the Nyquist sampling limit in

F160W, F475W, and F814W.



WFC3/UVIS 11905



WFC3 UVIS CCD Daily Monitor



The behavior of the WFC3 UVIS CCD will be monitored daily with a set of

full-frame, four-amp bias and dark frames. A smaller set of 2Kx4K

subarray biases are acquired at less frequent intervals throughout the

cycle to support subarray science observations. The internals from this

proposal, along with those from the anneal procedure (Proposal 11909),

will be used to generate the necessary superbias and superdark reference

files for the calibration pipeline (CDBS).



WFC3/UVIS 11908



Cycle 17: UVIS Bowtie Monitor



Ground testing revealed an intermittent hysteresis type effect in the

UVIS detector (both CCDs) at the level of ~1%, lasting hours to days.

Initially found via an unexpected bowtie-shaped feature in flatfield

ratios, subsequent lab tests on similar e2v devices have since shown

that it is also present as simply an overall offset across the entire

CCD, i.e., a QE offset without any discernable pattern. These lab tests

have further revealed that overexposing the detector to count levels

several times full well fills the traps and effectively neutralizes the

bowtie. Each visit in this proposal acquires a set of three 3x3 binned

internal flatfields: the first unsaturated image will be used to detect

any bowtie, the second, highly exposed image will neutralize the bowtie

if it is present, and the final image will allow for verification that

the bowtie is gone.



WFC3/UVIS/IR 11644



A Dynamical-Compositional Survey of the Kuiper Belt: A New Window Into

the Formation of the Outer Solar System



The eight planets overwhelmingly dominate the solar system by mass, but

their small numbers, coupled with their stochastic pasts, make it

impossible to construct a unique formation history from the dynamical or

compositional characteristics of them alone. In contrast, the huge

numbers of small bodies scattered throughout and even beyond the

planets, while insignificant by mass, provide an almost unlimited number

of probes of the statistical conditions, history, and interactions in

the solar system. To date, attempts to understand the formation and

evolution of the Kuiper Belt have largely been dynamical simulations

where a hypothesized starting condition is evolved under the

gravitational influence of the early giant planets and an attempt is

made to reproduce the current observed populations. With little

compositional information known for the real Kuiper Belt, the test

particles in the simulation are free to have any formation location and

history as long as they end at the correct point. Allowing compositional

information to guide and constrain the formation, thermal, and

collisional histories of these objects would add an entire new dimension

to our understanding of the evolution of the outer solar system. While

ground based compositional studies have hit their flux limits already

with only a few objects sampled, we propose to exploit the new

capabilities of WFC3 to perform the first ever large-scale

dynamical-compositional study of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and their

progeny to study the chemical, dynamical, and collisional history of the

region of the giant planets. The sensitivity of the WFC3 observations

will allow us to go up to two magnitudes deeper than our ground based

studies, allowing us the capability of optimally selecting a target list

for a large survey rather than simply taking the few objects that can be

measured, as we have had to do to date. We have carefully constructed a

sample of 120 objects which provides both overall breadth, for a general

understanding of these objects, plus a large enough number of objects in

the individual dynamical subclass to allow detailed comparison between

and within these groups. These objects will likely define the core

Kuiper Belt compositional sample for years to come. While we have many

specific results anticipated to come from this survey, as with any

project where the field is rich, our current knowledge level is low, and

a new instrument suddenly appears which can exploit vastly larger

segments of the population, the potential for discovery -- both

anticipated and not -- is extraordinary.