Daily Report #4973

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #4973

PERIOD COVERED: 5am November 16 - 5am November 17, 2009 (DOY 320/10:00z-321/10:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/WFC 11338

Continued M31 Monitoring for Black Hole X-ray Nova

During A01-7 we found 16 Black Hole X-ray Novae (BHXN) in M31 using
Chandra, and with HST followup have estimated orbital periods for 6 of
these. Observations are underway with HST to attempt to estimate
additional periods. We propose to continue this program, concentrating
our scarce HST resources on a single transient which exceeds the NS
Eddington limit. Only uninterrupted monitoring can yield the duty
cycles and long-term lightcurves of BHXN (and other variables) in M31.
Our GO+GTO programs have accumulated 300ks (ACIS) near the M31 bulge,
and total ACIS exposure on M31 is now 620ks. Our monitoring program
alone can amass 500ks on the bulge if continued through AO12, and
combined with other programs will reach 1Msec ACIS exposure on the
bulge.

STIS/CCD 11879

CCD Daily Monitor (Part 1)

This program comprises basic tests for measuring the read noise and
dark current of the ACS WFC and for tracking the growth of hot pixels.
The recorded frames are used to create bias and dark reference images
for science data reduction and calibration. This program will be
executed four days per week (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) for the duration of
Cycle 17. To facilitate scheduling, this program is split into three
proposals. This proposal covers 352 orbits (22 weeks) from 31 August
2009 to 31 January 2010.

COS/FUV 11895

FUV Detector Dark Monitor

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the FUV detector dark rate
by taking long science exposures without illuminating the detector.
The detector dark rate and spatial distribution of counts will be
compared to pre-launch and SMOV data in order to verify the nominal
operation of the detector. Variations of count rate as a function of
orbital position will be analyzed to find dependence of dark rate on
proximity to the SAA. Dependence of dark rate as function of time will
also be tracked.

COS/NUV 11894

NUV Detector Dark Monitor

The purpose of this proposal is to measure the NUV detector dark rate
by taking long science exposures with no light on the detector. The
detector dark rate and spatial distribution of counts will be compared
to pre-launch and SMOV data in order to verify the nominal operation
of the detector. Variations of count rate as a function of orbital
position will be analyzed to find dependence of dark rate on proximity
to the SAA. Dependence of dark rate as function of time will also be
tracked.

WFC3/IR 11818

NICMOS Confirmation of an Extrasolar pPanet Candidate Directly
Detected with ACS

With ACS/HRC coronagraphy, we have achieved the direct detection of a
planet candidate in F606W and F814W around a bright nearby star with a
debris belt. The planet candidate lies 18 astronomical units interior
to the dust belt and we detect counterclockwise orbital motion in
observations separated by 1.75 years. The candidate has mass no
greater than three Jupiter masses based on an analysis of its
luminosity and the dynamical argument that a significantly more
massive object would disrupt the dust belt. Using recent model
predictions for 100-300 Myr old planetary atmospheres, the planet
candidate has a temperature of ~400 K and a mass 1.6 - 3.4 M_J.
Variability at optical wavelengths suggests additional sources of
luminosity such as H-alpha emission or the episodic accretion of
cometary material. A key surprise is that the planet candidate is NOT
detected in Keck adaptive optics observations at 1.6 microns. Two
model atmospheres predict a flux a few times greater than our
detection limit, though the model predictions disagree with each other
by a factor of five due to theoretical uncertainty in the strength of
CH4 vibrational bands. These models predict the strongest emission
centered on the F110W passband of NICMOS such that the F814W - F110W
color will be red. Here we propose follow-up NICMOS observations to
verify that the emission observed in F814W is due to the emergent flux
from passive cooling of the planet, as opposed to other explanations,
such as reflected light from a Saturn analog with a circumplanetary
debris disk that would produce a bluer F814W - F110W color. Additional
deep images in and and out of the 1.14 micron water trough using NIC1
narrowband filters will test whether or not the emission is produced
from the passive cooling of a young massive planet.

STIS/CCD 10897

Coronagraphic imaging of the submillimeter debris disk of a 200Myr old
M-dwarf

A recent sub-millimeter survey has unambiguously discovered a new
debris disk around the M0.5 dwarf GJ842.2 which is 200 Myr old.
Reanalysis of the IRAS data has shown that there is also a 25 micron
excess toward this star indicating warm dust close to the star. It is
also only the second debris disk found among M-dwarfs that constitute
70 % of the stars in the Galaxy. Collisional and Poynting-Roberston
timescale arguments indicate that the cold grains detected in the
sub-mm are ``primordial'', i.e. original grains from the
protoplanetary phase. The disk around GJ842.2 is thus unique in terms
of the presence of dust at such a late stage of evolution and presents
two conundrums: why did it retain so much primordial dust at large
distances, and why does it continue to produce dust close to the star?
We propose to conduct high contrast NICMOS coronagraphic imaging of
GJ842.2 to determine the spatial distribution of the small reflecting
grains and test the various scenarios which might explain the IRAS and
sub-mm data e.g.resonant trapping of dust by planets or
``sandblasting'' by interstellar medium grains working more
aggressively on a low-luminosity star than on an A-type star like Beta
Pic. Also, we would search for an evolutionary sequence between
GJ842.2 and the only other M-dwarf with a disk resolved by HST, the 10
Myr old AU Mic system.

S/C 12046

COS FUV DCE Memory Dump

Whenever the FUV detector high voltage is on, count rate and current
draw information is collected, monitored, and saved to DCE memory.
Every 10 msec the detector samples the currents from the HV power
supplies (HVIA, HVIB) and the AUX power supply (AUXI). The last 1000
samples are saved in memory, along with a histogram of the number of
occurrences of each current value.

In the case of a HV transient (known as a "crackle" on FUSE), where
one of these currents exceeds a preset threshold for a persistence
time, the HV will shut down, and the DCE memory will be dumped and
examined as part of the recovery procedure. However, if the current
exceeds the threshold for less than the persistence time (a
"mini-crackle" in FUSE parlance), there is no way to know without
dumping DCE memory. By dumping and examining the histograms regularly,
we will be able to monitor any changes in the rate of "mini-crackles"
and thus learn something about the state of the detector.

STIS/CCD 11844

CCD Dark Monitor Part 1

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.

STIS/CCD 11846

CCD Bias Monitor-Part 1

The purpose of this proposal is to 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 11852

STIS CCD Spectroscopic Flats C17

The purpose of this proposal is to obtain pixel-to-pixel lamp flat
fields for the STIS CCD in spectroscopic mode.

STIS/CCD 11855

STIS/CCD Spectroscopic Sensitivity Monitor for Cycle 17

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the sensitivity of each CCD
grating mode to detect any changes due to contamination or other
causes.

WFC3/UVIS 11360

Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies

Star formation is a fundamental astrophysical process; it controls
phenomena ranging from the evolution of galaxies and nucleosynthesis
to the origins of planetary systems and abodes for life. The WFC3,
optimized at both UV and IR wavelengths and equipped with an extensive
array of narrow-band filters, brings unique capabilities to this area
of study. The WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee (SOC) proposes an
integrated program on star formation in the nearby universe which will
fully exploit these new abilities. Our targets range from the
well-resolved R136 in 30 Dor in the LMC (the nearest super star
cluster) and M82 (the nearest starbursting galaxy) to about half a
dozen other nearby galaxies that sample a wide range of star-formation
rates and environments. Our program consists of broad band
multiwavelength imaging over the entire range from the UV to the
near-IR, aimed at studying the ages and metallicities of stellar
populations, revealing young stars that are still hidden by dust at
optical wavelengths, and showing the integrated properties of star
clusters. Narrow-band imaging of the same environments will allow us
to measure star-formation rates, gas pressure, chemical abundances,
extinction, and shock morphologies. The primary scientific issues to
be addressed a (1) What triggers star formation? (2) How do the
properties of star-forming regions vary among different types of
galaxies and environments of different gas densities and compositions?
(3) How do these different environments affect the history of star
formation? (4) Is the stellar initial mass function universal or
determined by local conditions?

WFC3/IR 11202

The Structure of Early-type Galaxies: 0.1-100 Effective Radii

The structure, formation and evolution of early-type galaxies is still
largely an open problem in cosmology: how does the Universe evolve
from large linear scales dominated by dark matter to the highly
non-linear scales of galaxies, where baryons and dark matter both play
important, interacting, roles? To understand the complex physical
processes involved in their formation scenario, and why they have the
tight scaling relations that we observe today (e.g. the Fundamental
Plane), it is critically important not only to understand their
stellar structure, but also their dark-matter distribution from the
smallest to the largest scales. Over the last three years the SLACS
collaboration has developed a toolbox to tackle these issues in a
unique and encompassing way by combining new non-parametric strong
lensing techniques, stellar dynamics, and most recently weak
gravitational lensing, with high-quality Hubble Space Telescope
imaging and VLT/Keck spectroscopic data of early-type lens systems.
This allows us to break degeneracies that are inherent to each of
these techniques separately and probe the mass structure of early-type
galaxies from 0.1 to 100 effective radii. The large dynamic range to
which lensing is sensitive allows us both to probe the clumpy
substructure of these galaxies, as well as their low-density outer
haloes. These methods have convincingly been demonstrated, by our
team, using smaller pilot-samples of SLACS lens systems with HST data.
In this proposal, we request observing time with WFC3 and NICMOS to
observe 53 strong lens systems from SLACS, to obtain complete
multi-color imaging for each system. This would bring the total number
of SLACS lens systems to 87 with completed HST imaging and effectively
doubles the known number of galaxy-scale strong lenses. The deep HST
images enable us to fully exploit our new techniques, beat down
low-number statistics, and probe the structure and evolution of early-
type galaxies, not only with a uniform data-set an order of magnitude
larger than what is available now, but also with a fully-coherent and
self-consistent methodological approach!

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/UVIS 11565

A Search for Astrometric Companions to Very Low-Mass, Population II
Stars

We propose to carry out a Snapshot search for astrometric companions
in a subsample of very low-mass, halo subdwarfs identified within 120
parsecs of the Sun. These ultra-cool M subdwarfs are local
representatives of the lowest-mass H burning objects from the Galactic
Population II. The expected 3-4 astrometric doubles that will be
discovered will be invaluable in that they will be the first systems
from which gravitational masses of metal-poor stars at the bottom of
the main sequence can be directly measured.

WFC3/UVIS 11903

UVIS Photometric Zero Points

This proposal obtains the photometric zero points in 53 of the 62
UVIS/WFC3 filters: the 18 broad-band filters, 8 medium-band filters,
16 narrow-band filters, and 11 of the 20 quad filters (those being
used in cycle 17). The observations will be primary obtained by
observing the hot DA white dwarf standards GD153 and G191-B2B. A
redder secondary standard, P330E, will be observed in a subset of the
filters to provide color corrections. Repeat observations in 16 of the
most widely used cycle 17 filters will be obtained once per month for
the first three months, and then once every second month for the
duration of cycle 17, alternating and depending on target
availability. These observations will enable monitoring of the
stability of the photometric system. Photometric transformation
equations will be calculated by comparing the photometry of stars in
two globular clusters, 47 Tuc and NGC 2419, to previous measurements
with other telescopes/instruments.

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).

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary
reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be
investigated.)

HSTARS:

12075 - GSAcq(1,2,1) failed to RGA hold due to search radius limit
exceeded during LOS @ 320/11:05:25z

Observations affected: COS 5-6 Proposal ID# 11895, STIS 5 Proposal ID#
10897, STIS 6-8 Proposal ID# 11846, STIS 9-10 Proposal ID# 11852

12076 - GSAcq(1,2,1) scheduled at 320/23:40:28, REAcq(1,2,1) scheduled
at 321/00:57:00z and at 321/02:38:47z all failed to gyro control due
to search radius limit exceeded on FGS-1.

Observations affected: WFC3 39-46 Proposal ID# 11360.

12077 - GSAcq (2,3,3) failed to RGA Hold due to Search Radius Limit
Exceeded on FGS-2 during LOS @ 321/04:54:44z.

Ops Request 18762 executed @ 321/05:46z resulted in successful REAcq
(2,3,3) @ 321/06:02:14z.

Observations affected: WFC3 47-50 Proposal ID# 11360, ACS 17 Proposal
ID# 11360.

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST:

18562-1 - CONTINGENCY: Continuous FGS Loss of Lock looping @ 320/1146z
& 321/05:46z
18762-0 - Realtime OBAD with Correction @ 321/05:46z

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL
FGS GSAcq 10 07
FGS REAcq 06 04
OBAD with Maneuver 04 04

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)