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Daily Report #5035



 
 
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Old February 18th 10, 05:59 PM posted to sci.astro.hubble
Bassford, Lynn[_2_]
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Default Daily Report #5035

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5035

PERIOD COVERED: 5am February 17 - 5am February 18, 2010 (DOY 048/10:00z-049/10:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/WFC 11995

CCD Daily Monitor (Part 2)

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 320 orbits (20 weeks) from 1 February
2010 to 20 June 2010.

NIC2/WFC3/IR 11548

Infrared Imaging of Protostars in the Orion A Cloud: The Role of
Environment in Star Formation

We propose NICMOS and WFC3/IR observations of a sample of 252
protostars identified in the Orion A cloud with the Spitzer Space
Telescope. These observations will image the scattered light escaping
the protostellar envelopes, providing information on the shapes of
outflow cavities, the inclinations of the protostars, and the overall
morphologies of the envelopes. In addition, we ask for Spitzer time to
obtain 55-95 micron spectra of 75 of the protostars. Combining these
new data with existing 3.6 to 70 micron photometry and forthcoming
5-40 micron spectra measured with the Spitzer Space Telescope, we will
determine the physical properties of the protostars such as envelope
density, luminosity, infall rate, and outflow cavity opening angle. By
examining how these properties vary with stellar density (i.e.
clusters vs. groups vs. isolation) and the properties of the
surrounding molecular cloud; we can directly measure how the
surrounding environment influences protostellar evolution, and
consequently, the formation of stars and planetary systems.
Ultimately, this data will guide the development of a theory of
protostellar evolution.

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.

WFC3/ACS/IR 11563

Galaxies at z~7-10 in the Reionization Epoch: Luminosity Functions to
0.2L* from Deep IR Imaging of the HUDF and HUDF05 Fields

The first generations of galaxies were assembled around redshifts
z~7-10+, just 500-800 Myr after recombination, in the heart of the
reionization of the universe. We know very little about galaxies in
this period. Despite great effort with HST and other telescopes, less
than ~15 galaxies have been reliably detected so far at z7,
contrasting with the ~1000 galaxies detected to date at z~6, just
200-400 Myr later, near the end of the reionization epoch. WFC3 IR can
dramatically change this situation, enabling derivation of the galaxy
luminosity function and its shape at z~7-8 to well below L*,
measurement of the UV luminosity density at z~7-8 and z~8-9, and
estimates of the contribution of galaxies to reionization at these
epochs, as well as characterization of their properties (sizes,
structure, colors). A quantitative leap in our understanding of early
galaxies, and the timescales of their buildup, requires a total sample
of ~100 galaxies at z~7-8 to ~29 AB mag. We can achieve this with 192
WFC3 IR orbits on three disjoint fields (minimizing cosmic variance):
the HUDF and the two nearby deep fields of the HUDF05. Our program
uses three WFC3 IR filters, and leverages over 600 orbits of existing
ACS data, to identify, with low contamination, a large sample of over
100 objects at z~7-8, a very useful sample of ~23 at z~8-9, and limits
at z~10. By careful placement of the WFC3 IR and parallel ACS
pointings, we also enhance the optical ACS imaging on the HUDF and a
HUDF05 field. We stress (1) the need to go deep, which is paramount to
define L*, the shape, and the slope alpha of the luminosity function
(LF) at these high redshifts; and (2) the far superior performance of
our strategy, compared with the use of strong lensing clusters, in
detecting significant samples of faint z~7-8 galaxies to derive their
luminosity function and UV ionizing flux. Our recent z~7.4 NICMOS
results show that wide-area IR surveys, even of GOODS-like depth,
simply do not reach faint enough at z~7-9 to meet the LF and UV flux
objectives. In the spirit of the HDF and the HUDF, we will waive any
proprietary period, and will also deliver the reduced data to STScI.
The proposed data will provide a Legacy resource of great value for a
wide range of archival science investigations of galaxies at redshifts
z~2-9. The data are likely to remain the deepest IR/optical images
until JWST is launched, and will provide sources for spectroscopic
follow up by JWST, ALMA and EVLA.

WFC3/ACS/UVIS/IR 11570

Narrowing in on the Hubble Constant and Dark Energy

A measurement of the Hubble constant to a precision of a few percent
would be a powerful aid to the investigation of the nature of dark
energy and a potent "end-to end" test of the present cosmological
model. In Cycle 15 we constructed a new streamlined distance ladder
utilizing high- quality type Ia supernova data and observations of
Cepheids with HST in the near-IR to minimize the dominant sources of
systematic uncertainty in past measurements of the Hubble constant and
reduce its total uncertainty to a little under 5%. Here we propose to
exploit this new route to reduce the remaining uncertainty by more
than 30%, translating into an equal reduction in the uncertainty of
the equation of state of dark energy. We propose three sets of
observations to reach this goal: a mosaic of NGC 4258 with WFC3 in
F160W to triple its sample of long period Cepheids, WFC3/F160W
observations of the 6 ideal SN Ia hosts to triple their samples of
Cepheids, and observations of NGC 5584 the host of a new SN Ia, SN
2007af, to discover and measure its Cepheids and begin expanding the
small set of SN Ia luminosity calibrations. These observations would
provide the bulk of a coordinated program aimed at making the
measurement of the Hubble constant one of the leading constraints on
dark energy.

WFC3/UVI/IR 11557

The Nature of Low-Ionization BAL QSOs

The rare subclass of optically-selected QSOs known as low-ionization
broad absorption line (LoBAL) QSOs show signs of high-velocity gas
outflows and reddened continua indicative of dust obscuration. Recent
studies show that galaxies hosting LoBAL QSOs tend to be ultraluminous
infrared systems that are undergoing mergers, and that have dominant
young ( 100 Myr) stellar populations. Such studies support the idea
that LoBAL QSOs represent a short- lived phase early in the life of
QSOs, when powerful AGN-driven winds are blowing away the dust and gas
surrounding the QSO. If so, understanding LoBALs would be critical in
the study of phenomena regulating black hole and galaxy evolution,
such as AGN feedback and the early stages of nuclear accretion. These
results, however, come from very small samples that may have serious
selection biases. We are therefore taking a more aggressive approach
by conducting a systematic multiwavelength study of a volume limited
sample of LoBAL QSOs at 0.5 z 0.6 drawn from SDSS. We propose to
image their host galaxies in two bands using WFC3/UVIS and WFC3/IR to
study the morphologies for signs of recent tidal interactions and to
map their interaction and star forming histories. We will thus
determine whether LoBAL QSOs are truly exclusively found in young
merging systems that are likely to be in the early stages of nuclear
accretion.

WFC3/UVIS 11629

Far-UV Phase-Resolved Spectroscopy of PSR B0656+14

X-ray observations of the brightest middle-aged pulsar PSR B0656+14
have shown a Wien tail of thermal emission from the neutron star
surface in soft X-rays and magnetospheric emission at higher X-ray
energies. Optical/near-UV observations of this pulsar have shown that
its emission is predominantly magnetospheric in this range and
indicated that the Rayleigh-Jeans thermal component could dominate in
the far-UV. This hypothesis has been confirmed by our STIS/FUV
observation, which, however, was too short to separate and study the
thermal emission (only 2 of 8 allocated orbits were executed before
the STIS failure). Using the superior sensitivity of COS/FUV, we will
perform phase-resolved spectroscopy and wavelength-resolved timing of
the pulsar radiation in the 1105-1900 A band. The results of this
observation, combined with the optical-UV and X-ray data, will allow
us to firmly separate the thermal and magnetospheric components and
infer the temperature and radius of the neutron star, which is
important for understanding the thermal evolution of neutron stars and
constraining the composition and equation of state of their superdense
interiors.

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.

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 4 4
FGS REAcq 10 10
OBAD with Maneuver 4 4

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

 




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