Daily Report #4848

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT***** #4848

PERIOD COVERED: 5am May 5 - 5am May 6, 2009 (DOY 125/0900z-126/0900z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

S/C 4974

TRTTEST

The Transient Response Test is for the periodic performance monitoring
of the FGS 2R servo A mechanism.

WFPC2 11327

Red Leaks

The aim of this program is to measure the red leaks in the 8 WFPC2
UV??? filters (F122M, F300W, F255W, F218W, F185W, F170W, F160BW,
F122M). We will use red crossing filters to isolate and directly
measure the leaks. No observations of this kind have ever been
performed with WFPC2 to check the red leaks in the UV filters, most of
them being extensively used by GO/GTO programs. A previous calibration
program has only imaged spectrophotometric standard stars with UV
filters (no filter crossing) thus the red leak is hard to measure
using this data. The throughput curves for some of the UV filters
(F300W, F255W, F218W, F185W) in synphot have incomplete information,
some of them have gaps in the measurements as wide as 3000A.

WFPC2 11603

A Comprehensive Study of Dust Formation in Type II Supernovae with
HST, Spitzer and Gemini

The recent discovery of three extremely bright Type II SNe, (2007it,
2007oc, 2007od) gives us a unique opportunity to combine observations
with HST, Spitzer and Gemini to study the little understood dust
formation process in Type II SNe. Priority 1 Spitzer Cycle 5 and band
1 Gemini 2008A time has already been approved for this project. Since
late-time Type II SNe are faint and tend to be in crowded fields, we
need the high sensitivity and high spatial resolution of ACS/HRC and
NICMOS/NIC2 for these observations. This project is motivated by the
recent detection of large amounts of dust in high redshift galaxies.
The dust in these high-z galaxies must come from young, massive stars
so Type II SNe could be potential sources. The mechanism and the
efficiency of dust condensation in Type II SN ejecta are not well
understood, largely due to the lack of observational data. We plan to
produce a unique dataset, combining spectroscopy and imaging in the
visible, near- and mid-IR covering the key phase, 400-700 days after
maximum when dust is known to form in the SN ejecta. Therefore, we are
proposing for coordinated HST/NOAO observations (HST ACS/HRC,
NICMOS/NIC2 & Gemini/GMOS and TReCS) which will be combined with our
Spitzer Cycle 5 data to study these new bright SNe. The results of
this program will place strong constraints on the formation of dust
seen in young high redshift (z5) galaxies.

WFPC2 11793

WFPC2 Cycle 16 Internal Monitor

This calibration proposal is the Cycle 15 routine internal monitor for
WFPC2, to be run weekly to monitor the health of the cameras. A
variety of internal exposures are obtained in order to provide a
monitor of the integrity of the CCD camera electronics in both bays
(both gain 7 and gain 15 -- to test stability of gains and bias
levels), a test for quantum efficiency in the CCDs, and a monitor for
possible buildup of contaminants on the CCD windows. These also
provide raw data for generating annual super-bias reference files for
the calibration pipeline.

WFPC2 11987

The Recent Star Formation History of SINGS Galaxies

The Spitzer Legacy project SINGS provided a unique view of the current
state of star formation and dust in a sample of galaxies of all Hubble
types. This multi-wavelength view allowed the team to create current
star formation diagnostics that are independent of the dust content
and increased our understanding of the dust in galaxies. Even so,
using the SINGS data alone we can only make rough estimates of the
recent star formation history of these galaxies. The lack of U-band
observations means that it is impossible to estimate the ages of young
clusters. In addition, the low resolution of the Spitzer and
ground-based observations means that what appear to be individual
Spitzer sources can actually be composed of many individual clusters
with varying ages. In this proposal we plan to address this missing
area in SINGS by obtaining high-resolution WFPC2 UBVI observations to
accurately find and determine the ages of the young stellar clusters
in a subset of the SINGS galaxies. These observations will greatly
enhance the legacy value of the SINGS observations while also directly
answering questions pertaining to star formation in galaxies.

WFPC2 11988

Searching for Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Globular Clusters via
Proper Motions

The unambiguous detection of an intermediate mas black hole (IMBH) in
a globular star cluster would be a major achievement for the Hubble
Space Telescope. It is critical to know whether or not IMBHs exist in
the centers of clusters in order to understand the dynamical evolution
of dense stellar systems. Also, n IMBH detection would prove the
existence of BHs in an entirely new mass range. Observationally, the
search has been hampered by the low number of stars with known
velocities in the central few arcseconds. This limits measurements of
the stellar velocity dispersion in the region where the gravitational
influence of any IMBH would be felt. Existing IMBH claims in the
literature have all been called into question, and have all been based
on line-of-sight velocities from spectroscopy. In cycle 13, we
obtained ACS/HRC observations for 5 nearby Galactic globular clusters
for a new proper motion study. Here, we request WFPC2/PC observations
of these clusters, all of which are observable in Feb-May 2009. This 4
year baseline will allow us to measure the proper motions of stars
into the very center of each cluster, and either detect or place firm
constraints on the presence of an IMBH. In addition, we will determine
whether or not the clusters rotate or show any anisotropy in their
motions. Our small (75 orbit) program meets the criteria of
addressing high impact science (IMBH detection) using innovative
methods (proper motions).

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

11789 - GSAcq (1,2,2) scheduled at 126/01:42:58 failed due to search
radius limit exceeded. REAcq (1,2,2) scheduled from 126/03:05:51 -
03:13:22, 26/04:47 - 04:54:47 and from 126/06:29:15 - 06:36:46 all
failed to RGA Hold.

Observation affected: WFPC 120 - 123, Proposal ID# 11987

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST:

18422-1 - TRTT #22 Execution @ 125/1432z

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

*********************** SCHEDULED***** SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSAcq************** 03***************** 02
FGS REAcq************** 07***************** 04
OBAD with Maneuver **** 24***************** 24

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

The last planned execution of the FGS-2R Transient Response Trending
Test was successfully completed at 125/14:23z via Ops Request 18422.