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Daily #4066



 
 
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Old March 9th 06, 02:29 PM posted to sci.astro.hubble
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Default Daily #4066

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #4066

PERIOD COVERED: UT March 08, 2006 (DOY 067)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/HRC 10396

Star Clusters, Stellar Populations, and the Evolution of the Small
Magellanic Cloud

As the closest star forming dwarf galaxy, the SMC is the preferred
location for detailed studies of this extremely common class of
objects. We therefore propose to use the capabilities of ACS, which
provide an improvement by an order of magnitude over what is possible
with ground- based optical imaging surveys that are limited by
confusion anddepth, to measure key stellar population parameters in
the SMC from VI color-magnitude diagrams. Our program focuses on
regions where crowding makes HST essential and includes 7 star
clusters and 7 field star locations. We will measure accurate ages of
the clusters, test stellar evolution models, gain fiducial stellar
sequences to use in fitting the field stars, check the form of the
IMF, and substantially extend the study of RR Lyrae variables in the
key NGC121 SMC globular cluster. The field pointings will allow us to
reconstruct the star formation history, look for enhanced star
formation that is expected when the SMC interacts with the LMC and/or
Milky Way, and compare its main sequence luminosity {and mass}
functions with those of the Milky Way, LMC, and UMi dwarf spheroidal.
This proposal is part of a coordinated HST and ground-based study of
the stellar history and star formation processes in the SMC.

ACS/HRC/WFC 10729

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 will be
for the entire lifetime of ACS. Changes from cycle 13:- The default
gain for WFC is 2 e-/DN. As before bias frames will be collected for
both gain 1 and gain 2. Dark frames are acquired using the default
gain {2}. This program cover the period Oct, 2 2005- May, 29-2006. The
second half of the program has a different proposal number: 10758.

ACS/SBC 10231

Tracing the Reionization History of Intergalactic Helium out to
Redshift 3.8

We have found He II absorption in a quasar at redshift 3.82 via our
Cycle 12 program of UV snapshots. This is the highest redshift yet at
which He II absorption has been observed, and we propose to study
helium ionization in the IGM along this new, long, unobscured
sightline to high- redshift. The object has UV flux comparable to that
of the rare handful of other z3 quasars known to be suitable for
helium studies, and it is also in the Continuous Viewing Zone. The
proposed spectrum will allow us to study the evolution and properties
of the IGM and ionizing radiation from z=3.8 {the IGM environment near
the quasar} all the way down to z=2.8. This redshift range may span
the epoch of helium reionization, and even extends to high enough
redshift to enable improved helium opacity measures using both He II
Ly-alpha and Ly-beta. This program is now approved to use ACS prism.

ACS/WFC 10475

An ACS H-alpha Survey of the Carina Nebula

We propose an H-alpha ACS imaging survey covering 540 square
arcminutes of the Carina Nebula, including an unbiased survey of the
bright core, and several prominent dust pillars in the rich southern
region of the nebula. Carina provides an important link between
well-studied nearby H II regions like Orion, and more distant
mini-starbusts like 30 Doradus. CVZ orbits will allow extremely
efficient use of HST to map a large area of this complex and important
region -- more than 95 percent of the proposed survey will be observed
by HST for the first time. This survey will provide a complete census
of microjets, proplyds, and silhouette disks with diameters as small
as 200 AU, enough to spatially resolve disks like those in Orion, and
will provide the first catalog of outflows {jets} from embedded
low-mass stars, thin filamentary shocks, and wind-wind collisions in
Carina. An accurate census of these phenomena is needed to
characterize the star formation activity and gas dynamics as a
function of position in the nebula, and to determine if models for
protoplanetary disk evaporation from Orion are applicable in more
extreme regions. Our previous ground-based optical and IR surveys have
already revealed dozens of candidates for this type of activity -- but
this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our proposed HST/ACS survey
promises to be a bonanza for understanding ongoing low-mass star
formation influenced by extremely high-mass stars.

ACS/WFC 10587

Measuring the Mass Dependence of Early-Type Galaxy Structure

We propose two-color ACS-WFC Snapshot observations of a sample of 118
candidate early- type gravitational lens galaxies. Our lens-candidate
sample is selected to yield {in combination with earlier results} an
approximately uniform final distribution of 40 early-type strong
lenses across a wide range of masses, with velocity dispersions {a
dynamical proxy for mass} ranging from 125 to 300 km/s. The proposed
program will deliver the first significant sample of low-mass
gravitational lenses. All of our candidates have known lens and source
redshifts from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, and all are bright
enough to permit detailed photometric and stellar- dynamical
observation. We will constrain the luminous and dark-matter mass
profiles of confirmed lenses using lensed-image geometry and
lens-galaxy structural/photometric measurements from HST imaging in
combination with dynamical measurements from spatially resolved
ground-based follow-up spectroscopy. Hence we will determine, in
unprecedented detail, the dependence of early-type galaxy mass
structure and mass-to-light ratio upon galaxy mass. These results will
allow us to directly test theoretical predictions for halo
concentration and star-formation efficiency as a function of mass and
for the existence of a cuspy inner dark- matter component, and will
illuminate the structural explanation behind the fundamental plane of
early-type galaxies. The lens-candidate selection and confirmation
strategy that we propose has been proven successful for high-mass
galaxies by our Cycle 13 Snapshot program {10174}. The program that we
propose here will produce a complementary and unprecedented lens
sample spanning a wide range of lens-galaxy masses.

ACS/WFC 10740

Absolute Photometric & Spectrophometric Calibration

This program has several goals: 1.}Verify repeatability of the ACS
instrumentation on a single bright star to +/-0.2%. 2.}Determine any
shift in the filter bandpasses since the preflight lab measurements.
3.}Determine the relative magnitude of the 3 primary WD calibrators to
0.1%. 4.}Refine the sensitivity calibration of the CCD prism and
grisms at field center and determine the repeatability accuracy of
this calibration. 5.}Determine the level of variability of the three
HST red standard stars: VB-8 {M7}, 2M0038+18 {L3.5} and 2M0559-14
{T5}, and also measure their short wavelength {7000A} fluxes.
6.}Cross calibrate with a faint STIS and NICMOS standard WD and solar
analog star.

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 07 07
FGS REacq 05 05
OBAD with Maneuver 24 24

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

 




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