Daily Report #4635

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #4635

PERIOD COVERED: 5am June 18 - 5am June 19, 2008 (DOY 170/0900z-171/0900z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/SBC 11158

HST Imaging of UV emission in Quiescent Early-type Galaxies

We have constructed a sample of early type galaxies at z~0.1 that have blue
UV-optical colors, yet also show no signs of optical emission, or extended
blue light. We have cross-correlated the SDSS catalog and the Galaxy
Evolution Explorer Medium Imaging Survey to select a sample of galaxies
where this UV emission is strongest. The origin of the UV rising flux in
these galaxies continues to be debated, and the possibility that some
fraction of these galaxies may be experiencing low levels of star formation
cannot be excluded. There is also a possibility that low level AGN activity
{as evidenced by a point source} is responsible We propose to image the UV
emission using the HST/SBC and to explore the morphology of the UV emission
relative to the optical light.

NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8795

NICMOS Post-SAA Calibration - CR Persistence Part 6

A new procedure proposed to alleviate the CR-persistence problem of NICMOS.
Dark frames will be obtained immediately upon exiting the SAA contour 23,
and every time a NICMOS exposure is scheduled within 50 minutes of coming
out of the SAA. The darks will be obtained in parallel in all three NICMOS
Cameras. The POST-SAA darks will be non-standard reference files available
to users with a USEAFTER date/time mark. The keyword 'USEAFTER=date/time'
will also be added to the header of each POST-SAA DARK frame. The keyword
must be populated with the time, in addition to the date, because HST
crosses the SAA ~8 times per day so each POST-SAA DARK will need to have the
appropriate time specified, for users to identify the ones they need. Both
the raw and processed images will be archived as POST-SAA DARKSs. Generally
we expect that all NICMOS science/calibration observations started within 50
minutes of leaving an SAA will need such maps to remove the CR persistence
from the science images. Each observation will need its own CRMAP, as
different SAA passages leave different imprints on the NICMOS detectors.

NIC3/WFPC2 11192

NICMOS Confirmation of Candidates of the Most Luminous Galaxies at z 7

While the deepest pencil-beam near-IR survey suggested that the Universe was
too young to build up many luminous galaxies by z ~ 7--8 (Bouwens &
Illingworth 2006), there is also evidenc indicating the contrary. It is now
known that some galaxies with stellar masses of M1e10 Msun were already in
place by z ~ 6--7, which strongly suggests that their progenitors should be
significantly more luminous, and hence detectable in deep, wide-field
near-IR surveys (Yan et al. 2006). As galaxies at such a high redshift
should manifest themselves as "dropouts" from the optical, we have carried
out a very wide-field, deep near-IR survey in the GOODS fields to search for
z-band dropouts as candidates of galaxies at z 7. In total, six promising
candidates have been found in ~ 300 sq. arcmin to J_AB ~ 24.5 mag
(corresponding to restframe M(UV) -22.5 mag at z ~ 7). By contrast, the
galaxy luminosity function (LF) suggested in BI06 would predict at most 3--5
galaxies over the entire 2-pi sky at this brightness level. Here we propose
to observe these candidates with NIC3 in F110W and F160W to further
investigate their nature. If any of these candidates are indeed at z 7,
the result will lead to a completely new picture of star formation in the
early universe. If none of our candidates are consistent with being at z
7, then the depth and area of our near-IR survey (from which the candidates
are drawn) will let us set a very stringent upper limit on the bright end of
the galaxy LF at those redshift. As a result, our program will still be able
to provide new clues about the processes of early galaxy formation, such as
their dust contents and their merging time scale (Yan et al. 2006).

WFPC2 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 WFPC2 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!

WFPC2 11218

Snapshot Survey for Planetary Nebulae in Globular Clusters of the Local
Group

Planetary nebulae {PNe} in globular clusters {GCs} raise a number of
interesting issues related to stellar and galactic evolution. The number of
PNe known in Milky Way GCs, 4, is surprisingly low if one assumes that all
stars pass through a PN stage. However, it is likely that the remnants of
stars now evolving in Galactic GCs leave the AGB so slowly that any ejected
nebula dissipates long before the star becomes hot enough to ionize it. Thus
there should not be ANY PNe in Milky Way GCs--but there are four! It has
been suggested that these PNe are the result of mergers of binary stars
within GCs, i.e., that they are descendants of blue stragglers. The
frequency of occurrence of PNe in external galaxies poses more questions,
because it shows a range of almost an order of magnitude. I propose a
Snapshot survey aimed at discovering PNe in the GC systems of Local Group
galaxies more distant than the Magellanic Clouds. These clusters, some of
which may be much younger than their counterparts in the Milky Way, might
contain many more PNe than those of our own galaxy. I will use the standard
technique of emission-line and continuum imaging, which easily discloses
PNe.

WFPC2/NIC3/ACS/SBC 11144

Building on the Significant NICMOS Investment in GOODS: A Bright, Wide-Area
Search for z=7 Galaxies

One of the most exciting frontiers in observational cosmology has been to
trace the buildup and evolution of galaxies from very early times. While
hierarchical theory teaches us that the star formation rate in galaxies
likely starts out small and builds up gradually, only recently has it been
possible to see evidence for this observationally through the evolution of
the LF from z~6 to z~3. Establishing that this build up occurs from even
earlier times {z~7-8} has been difficult, however, due to the small size of
current high-redshift z~7-8 samples -- now numbering in the range of ~4-10
sources. Expanding the size of these samples is absolutely essential, if we
are to push current studies of galaxy buildup back to even earlier times.
Fortunately, we should soon be able to do so, thanks to ~50 arcmin**2 of
deep {26.9 AB mag at 5 sigma} NICMOS 1.6 micron data that will be available
over the two ACS GOODS fields as a result of one recent 180- orbit ACS
backup program and a smaller program. These data will nearly triple the deep
near-IR imaging currently available and represent a significant resource for
finding and characterizing the brightest high-redshift sources -- since
high-redshift candidates can be easily identified in these data from their
red z-H colours. Unfortunately, the red z-H colours of these candidates are
not sufficient to determine that these sources are at z=7, and it is
important also to have deep photometry at 1.1 microns. To obtain this
crucial information, we propose to follow up each of these z-H dropouts with
NICMOS at 1.1 microns to determine which are at high redshift and thus
significantly expand our sample of luminous, z=7 galaxies. Since
preliminary studies indicate that these candidates occur in only 30% of the
NIC3 fields, our follow-up strategy is ~3 times as efficient as without this
preselection and 9 times as efficient as a search in a field with no
pre-existing data. In total, we expect to identify ~8 luminous z-dropouts
and possibly ~2 z~10 J-dropouts as a result of this program, more than
tripling the number currently known. The increased sample sizes are
important if we are to solidify current conclusions about galaxy buildup and
the evolution of the LF from z~8. In addition to the high redshift science,
these deep 1.1 micron data would have significant value for many diverse
endeavors, including {1} improving our constraints on the stellar mass
density at z~7-10 and {2} doubling the number of galaxies at z~6 for which
we can estimate dust obscuration.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

11345 - GSAcq (2,1,1) failed to RGA Hold

At 170/13:14:11, GSAcq (2,1,1) scheduled from 13:10:21 - 13:17:38 failed to
RGA Hold. QF2STOPF flag was received on FGS 2. No other 486 ESB messages
were received. OBAD #1: V1 505.01, V2 -959.57, V3 -297.10, RSS 1124.32 arc
seconds. OBAD #2: V1 -3.18, V2 1.03, V3 1.36, RSS 3.61 arc seconds OBAD MAP:
GV1 1417.46, V2 1982.64, V3 -926.74, RSS 2607.47 arc seconds

Possible observations affected: WFPC Proposal #11202, Observation #84-85

At 170/14:48:48, REAcq (2,1,1) scheduled from 14:45:38 - 14:52:55 failed to
RGA Hold. QF2STOPF flag was received on FGS 2. No other 486 ESB messages
were received. OBAD #1: V1 1406.32, V2 1980.32, V3 -926.51, RSS 2599.55 arc
seconds OBAD #2: V1 1.38, V2 7.62, V3 5.25, RSS 9.35 arc seconds OBAD MAP:
V1 1854.26, V2 2428.33, V3 -1349.62, RSS 3340.14 arc seconds

Possible observations affected: WFPC Proposal #11202, Observation #86-87

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSacq 04 03
FGS REacq 11 10
OBAD with Maneuver 28 28

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)