Daily # 4129

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4129

PERIOD COVERED: UT June 06, 2006 (DOY 157)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/HRC 10335

Black Holes in Globular Clusters

Search for 3000 solar mass black holes at the centers of three
Galactic globular clusters using stellar proper motions.

ACS/HRC 10606

Ultraviolet Snapshots of 3CR Radio Galaxies

Radio galaxies are an important class of extragalactic objects: they
are one of the most energetic astrophysical phenomena and they provide
an exceptional probe of the evolving Universe, lying typically in high
density regions but well-represented across a wide redshift range. In
earlier Cycles we carried out extensive HST observations of the 3CR
sources in order to acquire a complete and quantitative inventory of
the structure, contents and evolution of these important objects.
Amongst the results, we discovered new optical jets, dust lanes,
face-on disks with optical jets, and revealed point-like nuclei whose
properties support FR-I/BL Lac unified schemes. Here, we propose to
obtain ACS NUV images of 3CR sources with z0.3 as a major enhancement
to an already superb dataset. We aim to reveal dust in galaxies,
regions of star and star cluster formation frequently associated with
dust and establish the physical characteristics of the dust itself. We
will measure frequency and spectral energy distributions of point-like
nuclei, seek spectral turnovers in known synchrotron jets and find new
jets. We will strongly test unified AGN schemes and merge these data
with existing X-ray to radio observations for significant numbers of
both FR-I and FR-II sources. The resulting database will be an
incredibly valuable resource to the astronomical community for years
to come.

ACS/WFC 10551

Gamma-Ray Bursts from Start to Finish: A Legacy Approach

The progenitors of long-duration GRBs are now known to be massive
stars. This result lends credence to the collapsar model, where a
rotating massive star ends its life leaving a black hole or a highly
magnetized neutron star, and confirms its essential aspects. The focus
of attention now is on the black hole or magnetar engines that power
the bursts. Somehow these engines create the most highly relativistic
and highly collimated outflows that we know of, through mechanisms
that no current theory can explain. These astrophysical laboratories
challenge our understanding of relativistic shocks, of mechanisms for
extracting energy from a black hole, and of how physics works in
extreme conditions. The launch of Swift is bringing us into a new era,
where we can make broadband observations that will enable us to study
these fascinating physical processes. We propose here an ambitious,
comprehensive program to obtain the datasets that will become the
standard that any successful model for the central engine must
explain. This programs leverages the HST observations to the maximum
extent by our commitment of Swift observations, a Large program at the
VLA, and extensive ground-based optical resources. By studying the
engines and searching for jets in a variety of events, this program
will investigate the conditions necessary for the engine and jet
formation itself.

ACS/WFC 10573

Globular Clusters in the Direction of the Inner Galaxy

The age, chemical and kinematic distributions of stellar populations
provide powerful constraints on models of the formation and evolution
of the Milky Way. The globular clusters constitute an especially
useful case because the stars within individual clusters are coeval
and spatially distinct. But a serious limitation in the study of many
globular clusters -- especially those located near the Galactic Center
-- has been the existence of large absolute and differential
extinction by foreground dust. We propose to use the ACS to map the
differential extinction and remove their effects in a large sample of
globular clusters located in the direction of the inner Galaxy using a
technique refined recently by von Braun and Mateo {2001}. These
observations and their analyses will let us produce high quality
color-magnitude diagrams of these poorly studied clusters that will
allow us to determine these clusters' relative ages, distances and
chemistry and to address important questions about the formation and
the evolution of the inner Galaxy. Our aim for these ACS observations
is to obtain data for the most crowded clusters in the inner Galaxy
where the excellent spatial resolution of the ACS is most necessary.

ACS/WFC 10588

The Host Galaxies of Post-Starburst Quasars

We propose to use ACS to conduct a snapshot imaging survey of
post-starburst quasars now being discovered in signficant numbers by
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Post-starburst quasars are broad-lined
AGN that also possess Balmer jumps and high-n Balmer absorption lines
indicative of luminous stellar populations on order of 100 Myr old.
These objects, representing a few percent of the z 0.5 quasar
population, may be an evolutionary stage in the transition of
ultraluminous infrared galaxies into normal quasars, or a type of
galaxy interaction that triggers both star formation and nuclear
activity. These sources may also illustrate how black hole mass/bulge
mass correlations arise. Ground-based imaging of individual
poststarburst quasars has revealed merger remnants, binary systems,
and single point sources. Our ACS snapshots will enable us to
determine morphologies and binary structure on sub-arcsecond scales
{surely present in the sample}, as well as basic host galaxy
properties. We will be looking for relationships among morphology,
particularly separation of double nuclei, the starburst age, the
quasar black hole mass and accretion rate, that will lead to an
understanding of the triggering activity and mutual evolution. This
project will bring quantitative data and statistics to the previously
fuzzy and anecdotal topic of the "AGN-starburst connection" and help
test the idea that post-starburst quasars are an early evolutionary
stage of normal quasars.

ACS/WFC 10635

Galaxy Transformation as probed by Morphology and Velocity Fields of
Distant Cluster Galaxies

We seek to obtain ACS imaging of four distant {0.3z0.6} clusters of
galaxies within a 6'x6' field covered by a 2x2 mosaic to determine
morphological and structural parameters of late-type galaxies. We
specifically concentrate on peculiarities indicative of past or
ongoing interaction processes. The ~90 target galaxies have been
{Period74} or will be {P75} observed with 3D- spectroscopy at ESO-VLT
yielding 2D-velocity fields with unprecedented spatial coverage and
sampling. The good spatial resolution of the ground-based data will be
further enhanced by a deconvolution method based on the proposed ACS
images. The velocity field and the morphology in restframe-UV light
will reveal possible transformation mechanisms affecting not only the
stellar populations but also the mass distribution of the galaxies.
Additionally, it will be possible to pin down the nature of the
interaction {e.g. tidally or ram-pressure induced}. This assessment
gets supported by our N-body/SPH simulations {including star
formation} of different interaction processes that allow the direct
comparison of structural and kinematical characteristics at each time
step with the observations on an individual basis taking into account
all observational constraints for a given galaxy. All together, we
will be able to explore the relative efficiency of the various
proposed transformation phenomena. In the case of non-disturbed
spirals, a rotation curve can be extracted from the full 2D velocity
field with unprecedented quality, from which the maximum rotation
speed can be derived with high confidence. In combination with
accurate size and luminosity determinations from the ACS images, we
will be able to establish the Tully-Fisher and Fundamental Plane
relations of cluster spiral members at cosmological epochs. At these
distances cluster assembly is predicted to peak and we can probe the
galaxies' luminosity, size and mass evolution with robust methods.
Together with our already existing sample of ~200 distant {z=1}
spiral galaxies in the field, we will put strong constraints on
current theories of galaxy formation and evolution in different
environments.

ACS/WFC/HRC 10536

What Are Stalled Preplanetary Nebulae? An ACS SNAPshot Survey

Essentially all planetary nebulae {PNs} are aspherical, whereas the
mass-loss envelopes of AGB stars are strikingly spherical. Our
previous SNAPshot surveys of a morphologically unbiased sample of
pre-planetary nebulae {PPNs} -- objects in transition between the AGB
and PN evolutionary phases -- show that roughly half our observed
targets are resolved, with bipolar or multipolar morphologies.
Spectroscopic observations of our sample confirm that these objects
have not yet evolved into planetary nebulae. Thus, the transformation
from spherical to aspherical geometries has already fully developed by
the time these dying stars have become PPNs. Although our current
studies have yielded exciting results, they are limited in two
important ways -- {1} the number of well-resolved objects is still
small {18}, and the variety of morphologies observed relatively
multitudinous, hence no clear trends can yet be established between
morphology and other source properties {e.g., near-IR, far-IR colors,
stellar spectral type, envelope mass}, and {2} the current samples are
strongly biased towards small PPNs, as inferred from their low
60-to-25 micron flux ratios [R{60/25}1]. However, the prototype of
objects with R{60/25}1, the Frosty Leo Nebula, has a puzzlingly large
post-AGB age {almost 10^4 yr} and a fairly cool central star, very
different from the expectations of single-star stellar evolutionary
models. A proposed, but still speculative, hypothesis for such objects
is that the slow evolution of the central star is due to backflow of
material onto the mass-losing star, retarding its evolution towards
the PN phase. This hypothesis has significant consequences for both
stellar and nebular evolution. We therefore propose a survey of PPNs
with R{60/25}1 which is heavily weighted towards the discovery of
such "stalled PPNs". Supporting kinematic observations using long-slit
optical spectroscopy {with the Keck}, millimeter and radio
interferometric observations {with OVRO, VLA & VLBA} are being
undertaken. The results from this survey {together with our previous
work} will allow us to draw general conclusions about the complex
mass-outflow processes affecting late stellar evolution, and will
provide crucial input for theories of post-AGB stellar evolution. Our
survey will produce an archival legacy of long-standing value for
future studies of dying stars.

NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8793

NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 4

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.

WFPC2 10745

WFPC2 CYCLE 14 INTERNAL MONITOR

This calibration proposal is the Cycle 14 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.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

10299 - GSAcq(1,2,1) requires two attempts to achieve CT-DV @
152/18:56:03z

OTA SE review of PTAS processing data revealed that GSAcq(1,2,1)
scheduled for 2006/152 18:56:03 required two entries into CT to
acheive CT-DV.

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST:
17778-1 - MA/GN Mode Recorder Dump Test @ 157/1759z

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL
FGS GSacq 08 08
FGS REacq 07 07
OBAD with Maneuver 30 30

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

FLASH REPORT

MA/GN Mode recorder Dump Test

- Ops Request 17778-1 was executed on DOY 2006/157 between 16:59:54
and 17:11:28, to test the process of dumping Science data via the MAT,
through TDRSS and to the ground. The test performance was successful.
Previously recorded SSR1 Science data was re-transmitted between
17:03:47 - 17:09:03. PACOR processed and analyzed the data and it was
nominal. Engineering data recorded on the ESTR during the test was
successfully dumped approximately 157/17:56:29. Future MA/GN tests
will be used for training and proficiency purposes to exercise the
process of transmitting science data via the MAT.