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Daily Report #5187



 
 
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Old September 23rd 10, 05:30 PM posted to sci.astro.hubble
Bassford, Lynn
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Posts: 44
Default Daily Report #5187

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5187

PERIOD COVERED: 5am September 22 - 5am September 23, 2010 (DOY 265/09:00z-266/09:00z)

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 5 5
FGS REAcq 8 8
OBAD with Maneuver 7 7

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)


OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED:

ACS/WFC 11996

CCD Daily Monitor (Part 3)

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 308 orbits (19.25 weeks) from 21 June
2010 to 1 November 2010.

COS/NUV/FUV 11598

How Galaxies Acquire their Gas: A Map of Multiphase Accretion and
Feedback in Gaseous Galaxy Halos

We propose to address two of the biggest open questions in galaxy
formation - how galaxies acquire their gas and how they return it to
the IGM - with a concentrated COS survey of diffuse multiphase gas in
the halos of SDSS galaxies at z = 0.15 - 0.35. Our chief science goal
is to establish a basic set of observational facts about the physical
state, metallicity, and kinematics of halo gas, including the sky
covering fraction of hot and cold material, the metallicity of infall
and outflow, and correlations with galaxy stellar mass, type, and
color - all as a function of impact parameter from 10 - 150 kpc.
Theory suggests that the bimodality of galaxy colors, the shape of the
luminosity function, and the mass-metallicity relation are all
influenced at a fundamental level by accretion and feedback, yet these
gas processes are poorly understood and cannot be predicted robustly
from first principles. We lack even a basic observational assessment
of the multiphase gaseous content of galaxy halos on 100 kpc scales,
and we do not know how these processes vary with galaxy properties.
This ignorance is presently one of the key impediments to
understanding galaxy formation in general. We propose to use the
high-resolution gratings G130M and G160M on the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph to obtain sensitive column density measurements of a
comprehensive suite of multiphase ions in the spectra of 43 z 1 QSOs
lying behind 43 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
In aggregate, these sightlines will constitute a statistically sound
map of the physical state and metallicity of gaseous halos, and
subsets of the data with cuts on galaxy mass, color, and SFR will seek
out predicted variations of gas properties with galaxy properties. Our
interpretation of these data will be aided by state-of-the-art
hydrodynamic simulations of accretion and feedback, in turn providing
information to refine and test such models. We will also use Keck,
MMT, and Magellan (as needed) to obtain optical spectra of the QSOs to
measure cold gas with Mg II, and optical spectra of the galaxies to
measure SFRs and to look for outflows. In addition to our other
science goals, these observations will help place the Milky Way's
population of multiphase, accreting High Velocity Clouds (HVCs) into a
global context by identifying analogous structures around other
galaxies. Our program is designed to make optimal use of the unique
capabilities of COS to address our science goals and also generate a
rich dataset of other absorption-line systems.

COS/NUV/FUV/STIS/CCD/MA1 11692

The LMC as a QSO Absorption Line System

We propose to obtain high resolution, high signal-to-noise
observations of QSOs behind the Large Magellanic Clouds. These QSOs
are situated beyond the star forming disk of the galaxy, giving us the
opportunity to study the distribution of metals and energy in regions
lacking significant star formation. In particular, we will derive the
metallicities and study the ionization characteristics of LMC gas at
impact parameters 3-17 kpc. We will compare our results with high-z
QSO absorption line systems.

FGS 12320

The Ages of Globular Clusters and the Population II Distance Scale

Globular clusters are the oldest objects in the universe whose age can
be accurately determined. The dominant error in globular cluster age
determinations is the uncertain Population II distance scale. We
propose to use FGS 1r to obtain parallaxes with an accuracy of 0.2
milliarcsecond for 9 main sequence stars with [Fe/H] -1.5. This will
determine the absolute magnitude of these stars with accuracies of
0.04 to 0.06mag. This data will be used to determine the distance to
24 metal-poor globular clusters using main sequence fitting. These
distances (with errors of 0.05 mag) will be used to determine the ages
of globular clusters using the luminosity of the subgiant branch as an
age indicator. This will yield absolute ages with an accuracy 5%,
about a factor of two improvement over current estimates. Coupled with
existing parallaxes for more metal-rich stars, we will be able to
accurately determine the age for globular clusters over a wide range
of metallicities in order to study the early formation history of the
Milky Way and provide an independent estimate of the age of the
universe.

The Hipparcos database contains only 1 star with [Fe/H] -1.4 and an
absolute magnitude error less than 0.18 mag which is suitable for use
in main sequence fitting. Previous attempts at main sequence fitting
to metal-poor globular clusters have had to rely on theoretical
calibrations of the color of the main sequence. Our HST parallax
program will remove this source of possible systematic error and yield
distances to metal-poor globular clusters which are significantly more
accurate than possible with the current parallax data. The HST
parallax data will have errors which are 10 times smaller than the
current parallax data. Using the HST parallaxes, we will obtain main
sequence fitting distances to 11 globular clusters which contain over
500 RR Lyrae stars. This will allow us to calibrate the absolute
magnitude of RR Lyrae stars, a commonly used Population II distance
indicator.

STIS/CCD 11845

CCD Dark Monitor Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.

STIS/CCD 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.

WFC3/UV 11605

Obtaining the Missing Links in the Test of Very Low Mass Evolutionary
Models with HST

We are proposing for spatially resolved ACS+HRC observations of 11
very low mass binaries spanning late-M, L and T spectral types in
order to obtain precise effective temperature measurements for each
component. All of our targets are part of a program in which we are
measuring dynamical masses of very low-mass binaries to an
unprecedented precision of 10% (or better). However, without precise
temperature measurements, the full scientific value of these mass
measurements cannot be realized. Together, mass and temperature
measurements will allow us to distinguish between brown dwarf
evolutionary models that make different assumptions about the interior
and atmospheric structure of these ultra-cool objects. While dynamical
masses can be obtained from the ground in the near-IR, obtaining
precise temperatures require access to optical data which, for these
sub-arcsecond binaries, can only be obtained from space with Hubble.

WFC3/UV 12245

Orbital Evolution and Stability of the Inner Uranian Moons

Nine densely-packed inner moons of Uranus show signs of chaos and
orbital instability over a variety of time scales. Many moons show
measureable orbital changes within a decade or less. Long-term
integrations predict that some moons could collide in less than one
million years. One faint ring embedded in the system may, in fact, be
the debris left behind from an earlier such collision. Meanwhile, the
nearby moon Mab falls well outside the influence of the others but
nevertheless shows rapid, as yet unexplained, changes in its orbit. It
is embedded within a dust ring that also shows surprising variability.
A highly optimized series of observations with WFC3 over the next
three cycles will address some of the fundamental open questions about
this dynamically active system: Do the orbits truly show evidence of
chaos? If so, over what time scales? What can we say about the masses
of the moons involved? What is the nature of the variations in Mab's
orbit? Is Mab's motion predictable or random? Astrometry will enable
us to derive the orbital elements of these moons with 10-km precision.
This will be sufficient to study the year-by-year changes and,
combined with other data from 2003-2007, the decadal evolution of the
orbits. The pairing of precise astrometry with numerical integrations
will enable us to derive new dynamical constraints on the masses of
these moons. Mass is the fundamental unknown quantity currently
limiting our ability to reproduce the interactions within this system.
This program will also capitalize upon our best opportunity for nearly
40 years to study the unexplained variations in Uranus's faint outer
rings.

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 11914

UVIS Earth Flats

This program is an experimental path finder for Cycle 18 calibration.
Visible-wavelength flat fields will be obtained by observing the dark
side of the Earth during periods of full moon illumination. The
observations will consist of full-frame streaked WFC3 UVIS imagery:
per 22- min total exposure time in a single "dark-sky" orbit, we
anticipate collecting 7000 e/pix in F606W or 4500 e/pix in F814W. To
achieve Poisson S/N 100 per pixel, we require at least 2 orbits of
F606W and 3 orbits of F814W.

For UVIS narrowband filters, exposures of 1 sec typically do not
saturate on the sunlit Earth, so we will take sunlit Earth flats for
three of the more-commonly used narrowband filters in Cycle 17 plus
the also-popular long-wavelength quad filters, for which we get four
filters at once.

Why not use the Sunlit Earth for the wideband visible-light filters?
It is too bright in the visible for WFC3 UVIS minimum exposure time of
0.5 sec. Similarly, for NICMOS the sunlit-Earth is too bright which
saturates the detector too quickly and/or induces abnormal behaviors
such as super-shading (Gilmore 1998, NIC 098-011). In the narrowband
visible and broadband near- UV its not too bright (predictions in Cox
et al. 1987 "Standard Astronomical Sources for HST: 6. Spatially Flat
Fields." and observations in ACS Program 10050).

Other possibilities? Cox et al.'s Section II.D addresses many other
possible sources for flat fields, rejecting them for a variety of
reasons. A remaining possibility would be the totally eclipsed moon.
Such eclipses provide approximately 2 hours (1 HST orbit) of
opportunity per year, so they are too rare to be generically useful.
An advantage of the moon over the Earth is that the moon subtends less
than 0.25 square degree, whereas the Earth subtends a steradian or
more, so scattered light and light potentially leaking around the
shutter presents additional problems for the Earth. Also, we're unsure
if HST can point 180 deg from the Sun.


 




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