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Daily 3841
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science
DAILY REPORT # 3841 PERIOD COVERED: DOY 108 OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS 10140 Identification of a magnetic anomaly at Jupiter from satellite footprints Repeated imaging of Jupiter's aurora has shown that the northern main oval has a distorted 'kidney bean' shape in the general range of 90-140? System III longitude, which appears unchanged since 1994. While it is more difficult to observe the conjugate regions in the southern aurora, no corresponding distortion appears in the south. Recent improved accuracy in locating the satellite footprint auroral emissions has provided new information about the geometry of Jupiter's magnetic field in this and other areas. The study of the magnetic field provides us with insight into the state of matter and the dynamics deep down Jupiter. There is currently no other way to do this from orbit. The persistent pattern of the main oval implies a disturbance of the local magnetic field, and the increased latitudinal separation of the locus of satellite footprints from each other and from the main oval implies a locally weaker field strength. It is possible that these phenomena result from a magnetic anomaly in Jupiter's intrinsic magnetic field, as was proposed by A. Dessler in the 1970's. There is presently only limited evidence from the scarcity of auroral footprints observed in this longitude range. We propose to obtain HST UV images with specific observing geometries of Jupiter to determine the locations of the auroral footprints of Io, Europa, and Ganymede in cycle 13 to accurately determine the magnetic field geometry in the suggested anomaly region, and to either confirm or refute the suggestion of a local magnetic anomaly. ACS/HRC 10391 Wavelength and Flux Calibration of the ACS prisms The wavelength calibration of the SBC {PR110L and PR130L} and HRC {PR200L} prisms will be established by observing a planetary nebula in the LMC and QSOs at carefully selected redshifts. Flux calibrations will be derived for each prism by observing white dwarf standards. ACS/HRC/WFC 10370 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 12 hours, after which the heaters are turned off, the TECs turned on, and the CCDs returned to normal operating condition. To assess the effectiveness of the annealing, a bias and four dark images will be taken before and after the annealing procedure for both WFC and HRC. The HRC darks are taken in parallel with the WFC darks. The charge transfer efficiency {CTE} of the ACS CCD detectors declines as damage due to on-orbit radiation exposure accumulates. This degradation has been closely monitored at regular intervals, because it is likely to determine the useful lifetime of the CCDs. We will now combine the annealling activity with the charge transfer efficiency monitoring and also merge into the routine dark image collection. To this end, the CTE monitoring exposures have been moved into this proposal . All the data for this program is acquired using internal targets {lamps} only, so all of the exposures should be taken during Earth occultation time {but not during SAA passages}. This program emulates the ACS pre-flight ground calibration and post-launch SMOV testing {program 8948}, so that results from each epoch can be directly compared. Extended Pixel Edge Response {EPER} and First Pixel Response {FPR} data will be obtained over a range of signal levels for both the Wide Field Channel {WFC}, and the High Resolution Channel {HRC}. ACS/HRC/WFC 10389 ACS CCDs daily monitor - Cycle 13 - Part 2 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 will be for the entire lifetime of ACS. ACS/HRC/WFC 10399 Accurate and Robust Calibration of the Extragalactic Distance Scale with the Maser Galaxy NGC4258 II The extragalactic distance scale {EDS} is defined by a comparison of Cepheid Period- Luminosity {PL} relations for nearby galaxies and the LMC, whose uncertain distance is thereby the SOLE anchor. Studies of masers orbiting the central black hole in NGC4258 have provided the most accurate extragalactic distance ever {7.2+/-0.5 Mpc}, and new radio data and analysis techniques will reduce the uncertainty to 3.5% {0.07 mag} by 2005. Since this distance is well determined and based on geometric arguments, NGC4258 can provide a much needed new anchor for the EDS. Ultimately, the combination of an independent measurement of H0 and measurements of CMB fluctuations {e.g., WMAP} can be used to directly constrain cosmological parameters including the equation of state of dark energy. In our Cycle 12 proposal, we defined a program spanning two cycles. The Cycle 12 portion was accepted. We have acquired WFC images and are constructing well sampled PL relations in 3 colors {BVI}. The purpose of the Cycle 13 observations is to address systematic sources of error and is crucial for the success of the entire program. To disentangle the effects of reddening and metallicity, and to characterize the effects of blending, we require 50 orbits to obtain H-band photometry {NICMOS/NIC2} and high resolution images {ACS/HRC}. ACS/HRC/WFC 10436 Black Hole Growth and the Black Hole Mass -- Bulge Relations for AGNs Recent work has shown that the mass of a black hole is tightly correlated with the bulge mass of its host galaxy. This relation needs to be understood in the context of black hole growth in its active phase. Highly accreting AGNs, like narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies {NLS1s}, are found to lie below the black hole mass -- bulge velocity dispersion correlation of normal galaxies and broad line AGNs. This result was obtained using FWHM{[OIII]} as a surrogate for the bulge velocity dispersion. To test this result we propose to obtain high resolution images of 10 NLS1s that do not lie on the black hole mass--sigma relation and measure accurate bulge parameters {luminosity and effective radius}. We will obtain an alternate handle on the bulge velocity dispersion through the fundamental plane relations and also find the locus of these NLS1s on the black hole mass--bulge luminosity plane. Testing this result is crucial to understanding the role of accretion on black hole growth, the observed correlations of the black hole mass with the bulge, and the formation and evolution of galaxies. ACS/WFC 10369 ACS internal CTE monitor The charge transfer efficiency {CTE} of the ACS CCD detectors will decline as damage due to on-orbit radiation exposure accumulates. This degradation will be closely monitored at regular intervals, because it is likely to determine the useful lifetime of the CCDs. All the data for this program is acquired using internal targets {lamps} only, so all of the exposures should be taken during Earth occultation time {but not during SAA passages}. This program emulates the ACS pre-flight ground calibration and post-launch SMOV testing {program 8948}, so that results from each epoch can be directly compared. Extended Pixel Edge Response {EPER} and First Pixel Response {FPR} data will be obtained over a range of signal levels for both the Wide Field Channel {WFC}, and the High Resolution Channel {HRC}. ACS/WFC 10412 The host galaxies of dust-reddened quasars We have used the 2MASS near-infrared and FIRST radio surveys, together with the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates to select a sample of dust-reddened, radio- intermediate quasars. We wish to use ACS to study the host galaxies of these quasars. The dust reddening of the quasars makes it possible to study the hosts at rest-frame optical-UV wavelengths much more easily than the hosts of normal quasars of similar bolometric luminosity. Our study will compare the hosts of our dust-reddened quasars to those of normal quasars from the HST archive to test the hypothesis that dust-reddened quasars are young objects, whose hosts still show morphological evidence of recent merger events which triggered the quasar. FGS 10104 Calibrating the Mass-Luminosity Relation at the End of the Main Sequence We propose to use HST-FGS1R to calibrate the mass-luminosity relation {MLR} for stars less massive than 0.2 Msun, with special emphasis on objects near the stellar/brown dwarf border. Our goals are to determine M_V values to 0.05 magnitude, masses to 5 than double the number of objects with masses determined to be less than 0.20 Msun. This program uses the combination of HST-FGS3/FGS1R at optical wavelengths and ground-based infrared interferometry to examine nearby, subarcsecond binary systems. The high precision measurements with HST-FGS3/FGS1R {to 1 mas in the separations} for these faint targets {V = 10--15} simply cannot be equaled by any ground based technique. As a result of these measurements, we are deriving high quality luminosities and masses for the components in the observed systems, and characterizing their spectral energy distributions from 0.5 to 2.2 Mum. Several of the objects included have M 0.1 Msun, placing them at the very end of the stellar main sequence. Three of the targets are brown dwarf candidates, including the current low mass record holder, GJ 1245C, with a mass of 0.062 +/- 0.004 Msun. The payoff of this proposal is high because all 10 of the systems selected have already been resolved with HST- FGS3/FGS1R during Cycles 5--10 and contain most of the reddest objects for which masses can be determined. NIC2 10418 Morphologies and Color Gradients of Galaxies with the Oldest Stellar Populations at High Redshifts We have isolated a sample of 9 luminous {~2L*} galaxies with the very oldest stellar populations at their respective redshifts. The galaxies have been found in radio-source fields chosen to be at the key redshifts z~1.5 and z~2.5, which allow the cleanest separation of old stellar populations from highly reddened starbursts with colors derived from standard filter combinations. Ground-based observations in excellent seeing and with adaptive optics of 3 of these galaxies indicate that all 3 are dominated by well relaxed disks of old stars, suggesting that the first large stellar systems to form in the universe were disks in which star formation proceeded extremely rapidly and efficiently. In order to test this conjecture, we are requesting NICMOS2 exposures of our sample to obtain high S/N imaging in the F160W filter to determine detailed morphologies of the old stellar population, coupled with either NICMOS2 F110W or ACS F814W exposures {depending on redshift} to determine color gradients and/or other systematic color variations that might provide clues to formation processes. WFPC2 10359 WFPC2 CYCLE 13 Standard Darks This dark calibration program obtains dark frames every week in order to provide data for the ongoing calibration of the CCD dark current rate, and to monitor and characterize the evolution of hot pixels. Over an extended period these data will also provide a monitor of radiation damage to the CCDs. WFPC2 10363 WFPC2 CYCLE 13 Intflat and Visflat Sweeps and Filter Rotation Anomaly Monitor Using intflat observations, this WFPC2 proposal is designed to monitor the pixel-to-pixel flatfield response and provide a linearity check. The intflat sequences, to be done once during the year, are similar to those from the Cycle 12 program 10075. The images will provide a backup database as well as allow monitoring of the gain ratios. The sweep is a complete set of internal flats, cycling through both shutter blades and both gains. The linearity test consists of a series of intflats in F555W, in each gain and each shutter. As in Cycle 12, we plan to continue to take extra visflat, intflat, and earthflat exposures to test the repeatability of filter wheel motions. FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY: Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be investigated.) None COMPLETED OPS REQs: None OPS NOTES EXECUTED: None SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL FAILURE TIMES FGS Gsacq 12 12 FGS Reacq 6 6 FHST Update 20 20 LOSS of LOCK SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: None |
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