DAILY REPORT # 4243

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4243

PERIOD COVERED: UT November 17,18,19, 2006 (DOY 321,322,323)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

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.

ACS/WFC 11045

ACS internal CTE monitor

The charge transfer efficiency {CTE} of the ACS CCD detectors will
decline as damage due to on-orbit radiation exposure accumulates. This
degradation will be closely monitored at regular intervals, because it
is likely to determine the useful lifetime of the CCDs. All the data
for this program is acquired using internal targets {lamps} only, so
all of the exposures should be taken during Earth occultation time
{but not during SAA passages}. This program emulates the ACS
pre-flight ground calibration and post-launch SMOV testing {program
8948}, so that results from each epoch can be directly compared.
Extended Pixel Edge Response {EPER} and First Pixel Response {FPR}
data will be obtained over a range of signal levels for both the Wide
Field Channel {WFC}, and the High Resolution Channel {HRC}.

FGS 11018

Long Term Stability of FGS1r in Position Mode

It is known from our experience with FGS3, and later with FGS1r, that
an FGS on orbit experiences long term evolution, presumably due to
disorption of water from the instrument's graphite epoxy composits.
This manifests principly as a change in the plate scale and
secondarily as a change in the geometric distortions. These effects
are well modeled by adjustments to the rhoA and kA parameters which
are used to transform the star selector servo angles into FGS {x, y}
detector space coordinates. By observing the relative positions of
selected stars in a standard cluster at a fixed telescope pointing and
orientation, the evolution of rhoA and kA can be monitored and
calibrated to preserve the astrometric performance of FGS1r.

FGS 10989

Astrometric Masses of Extrasolar Planets and Brown Dwarfs

We propose observations with HST/FGS to estimate the astrometric
elements {perturbation orbit semi-major axis and inclination} of
extra-solar planets orbiting six stars. These companions were
originally detected by radial velocity techniques. We have
demonstrated that FGS astrometry of even a short segment of reflex
motion, when combined with extensive radial velocity information, can
yield useful inclination information {McArthur et al. 2004}, allowing
us to determine companion masses. Extrasolar planet masses assist in
two ongoing research frontiers. First, they provide useful boundary
conditions for models of planetary formation and evolution of
planetary systems. Second, knowing that a star in fact has a plantary
mass companion, increases the value of that system to future
extrasolar planet observation missions such as SIM PlanetQuest, TPF,
and GAIA.

WFPC2 10915

ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey

Existing HST observations of nearby galaxies comprise a sparse and
highly non-uniform archive, making comprehensive comparative studies
among galaxies essentially impossible. We propose to secure HST's
lasting impact on the study of nearby galaxies by undertaking a
systematic, complete, and carefully crafted imaging survey of ALL
galaxies in the Local Universe outside the Local Group. The resulting
images will allow unprecedented measurements of: {1} the star
formation history {SFH} of a 100 Mpc^3 volume of the Universe with a
time resolution of Delta[log{t}]=0.25; {2} correlations between
spatially resolved SFHs and environment; {3} the structure and
properties of thick disks and stellar halos; and {4} the color
distributions, sizes, and specific frequencies of globular and disk
clusters as a function of galaxy mass and environment. To reach these
goals, we will use a combination of wide-field tiling and pointed deep
imaging to obtain uniform data on all 72 galaxies within a
volume-limited sample extending to ~3.5 Mpc, with an extension to the
M81 group. For each galaxy, the wide-field imaging will cover out to
~1.5 times the optical radius and will reach photometric depths of at
least 2 magnitudes below the tip of the red giant branch throughout
the limits of the survey volume. One additional deep pointing per
galaxy will reach SNR~10 for red clump stars, sufficient to recover
the ancient SFH from the color-magnitude diagram. This proposal will
produce photometric information for ~100 million stars {comparable to
the number in the SDSS survey} and uniform multi-color images of half
a square degree of sky. The resulting archive will establish the
fundamental optical database for nearby galaxies, in preparation for
the shift of high-resolution imaging to the near-infrared.

ACS/WFC 10905

The Dynamic State of the Dwarf Galaxy Rich Canes Venatici I Region

With accurate distances, the nearest groups of galaxies can be
resolved in 3 dimensions and the radial component of the motions of
galaxies due to local density perturbations can be distinquished from
cosmological expansion components. Currently, with the ACS, galaxy
distances within 8 Mpc can be measured effectively and efficiently by
detecting the tip of the red giant branch {TRGB}. Of four principal
groups at high galactic latitude in this domain, the Canes Venatici I
Group {a} is the least studied, {b} is the most populated, though
overwhelmingly by dwarf galaxies, and {c} is likely the least
dynamically evolved. It is speculated that galaxies in low mass groups
may fail to retain baryons as effectively as those in high mass
groups, resulting in significantly higher mass-to-light ratios. The
CVn I Group is suspected to lie in the mass regime where the
speculated astrophysical processes that affect baryon retention are
becoming important.

ACS/WFC 10895

Closure on the IRAS "Big Four": A High Contrast Study of Epsilon
Eridani's Dust Belt in Scattered Light.

The ACS / HRC coronagraph has now demonstrated an unmatched capability
to detect dusty debris disks around bright, nearby stars. Among the
"Big Four" debris disks discovered with IRAS twenty years ago, only
Epsilon Eridani {SpT=K2V, d=3.2 pc} has yet to be targeted with ACS.
Beta Pictoris, Fomalhaut and Vega have been imaged with the ACS
coronagraph, with the recent detection of reflected light from
Fomalhaut's dust belt {Kalas, Graham & Clampin 2005}. The direct
detection of dust scattered light around Fomalhaut shows disk
structure and asymmetry that can be directly linked to dynamical
models of planetary perturbation. Here we propose to use the ACS HRC
and WFC to detect Eps Eri's dust belt. A new motivation to attempt
this observations arises from recent 350 micron images that reveal two
dust arcs ~60 AU to the southeast and northwest of the star. Contrary
to previous 850 and 450 micron maps, the northwest arc is brighter
than the southeast arc, and the northwest region has not been targeted
by previous STIS imaging at lower contrast. The optical detection of
dust features around Eps Eri would be significant because a high
resolution optical image, together with Spitzer and sub-mm images,
would help anchor dynamical models of Eps Eri's planetary system, in
addition to providing direct visual indications of disk-planet
interactions.

ACS/WFC 10886

The Sloan Lens ACS Survey: Towards 100 New Strong Lenses

As a continuation of the highly successful Sloan Lens ACS {SLACS}
Survey for new strong gravitational lenses, we propose one orbit of
ACS-WFC F814W imaging for each of 50 high- probability strong
galaxy-galaxy lens candidates. These observations will confirm new
lens systems and permit immediate and accurate photometry, shape
measurement, and mass modeling of the lens galaxies. The lenses
delivered by the SLACS Survey all show extended source structure,
furnishing more constraints on the projected lens potential than
lensed-quasar image positions. In addition, SLACS lenses have lens
galaxies that are much brighter than their lensed sources,
facilitating detailed photometric and dynamical observation of the
former. When confirmed lenses from this proposal are combined with
lenses discovered by SLACS in Cycles 13 and 14, we expect the final
SLACS lens sample to number 80--100: an approximate doubling of the
number of known galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses and an
order-of-magnitude increase in the number of optical Einstein rings.
By virtue of its homogeneous selection and sheer size, the SLACS
sample will allow an unprecedented exploration of the mass structure
of the early-type galaxy population as a function of all other
observable quantities. This new sample will be a valuable resource to
the astronomical community by enabling qualitatively new strong
lensing science, and as such we will waive all but a short {3-month}
proprietary period on the observations.

ACS/HRC 10877

A Snapshot Survey of the Sites of Recent, Nearby Supernovae

During the past few years, robotic {or nearly robotic} searches for
supernovae {SNe}, most notably our Lick Observatory Supernova Search
{LOSS}, have found hundreds of SNe, many of them in quite nearby
galaxies {cz 4000 km/s}. Most of the objects were discovered before
maximum brightness, and have follow-up photometry and spectroscopy;
they include some of the best-studied SNe to date. We propose to
conduct a snapshot imaging survey of the sites of some of these nearby
objects, to obtain late-time photometry that {through the shape of the
light and color curves} will help reveal the origin of their lingering
energy. The images will also provide high-resolution information on
the local environments of SNe that are far superior to what we can
procure from the ground. For example, we will obtain color-color and
color-magnitude diagrams of stars in these SN sites, to determine the
SN progenitor masses and constraints on the reddening. Recovery of the
SNe in the new HST images will also allow us to actually pinpoint
their progenitor stars in cases where pre- explosion images exist in
the HST archive. This proposal is an extension of our successful Cycle
13 snapshot survey with ACS. It is complementary to our Cycle 15
archival proposal, which is a continuation of our long-standing
program to use existing HST images to glean information about SN
environments.

ACS/HRC 10860

The largest Kuiper belt object

The past year has seen an explosion in the discoveries of Pluto-sized
objects in the Kuiper belt. With the discoveries of the
methane-covered 2003 UB313 and 2005 FY9, the multiple satellite system
of 2003 EL61, and the Pluto-Charon analog system of Orcus and its
satellite, it is finally apparent that Pluto is not a unique oddball
at the edge of the solar system, but rather one of a family of
similarly large objects in the Kuiper belt and beyond. HST
observations over the past decade have been critical for understanding
the interior, surface, and atmosphere of Pluto and Charon. We propose
here a comprehensive series of observations designed to similarly
expand our knowledge of these recently discovered Pluto-sized and
near-Pluto-sized Kuiper belt objects. These observations will measure
objects' sizes and densities, explore the outcome of collisions in the
outer solar system, and allow the first ever look at the interior
structure of a Kuiper belt object. Our wide field survey that
discovered all of these objects is nearly finished, so after five
years of continuous searching we are finally almost complete in our
tally of these near-Pluto-sized objects. This large HST request is the
culmination of this half-decade search for new planetary-sized
objects. As has been demonstrated repeatedly by the approximately 100
previous orbits devoted to the study of Pluto, only HST has the
resolution and sensitivity for detailed study of these distant
objects.

NIC2 10856

Delayed Negative Feedback in the Super Star Clusters of SBS0335-052E

The critical unanswered question in calculations of galaxy formation
and evolution is the degree of feedback from the formation of the
first massive stars on subsequent evolution. Even the sign of the term
is uncertain. Super Star Clusters give one very dramatic answer by
forming several thousand O stars in a volume with a radius of only a
few parsecs. How can that many massive stars form in such a small
volume without immediate dissipation of all gas by the intense
ionizing radiation from the stars? SBS0335-052E has done this, not
once but at least 6 times in a region of approximately 500 parsecs in
size. It has also managed to do this with the third lowest metallicity
of any known galaxy. The record lowest metallicity is held by its
companion SBS0335- 052W. These observations are designed to test one
answer to this enigma; that all of the ionizing photons are absorbed
within a few hundred AU of the stars that emit them. This delays the
negative feedback from photoionization and allows the formation of
other stars in the immediate neighborhood who are oblivious to the
massive stars nearby. This scenario predicts that both molecular and
ionized gas exist within the radius of the super star clusters and
that their emission should be spatially coincident. We propose to test
this hypothesis with high spatial resolution NICMOS camera 2 images in
the hydrogen Pa alpha and molecular hydrogen {1-0} S{1} emission
lines. Spatial coincidence of the emission regions will confirm that
gas within the cluster is shielded from ionizing and dissociating
photons and is capable of forming new stars within this tiny region in
spite of the presence of thousands of massive stars. The current burst
of star formation was probably triggered by interaction with the giant
spiral galaxy NGC 1376. This proposal contains parallel observations
of this galaxy with the ACS WFC. Due to the intense interest in
SBS0335-052 we waive all proprietary rights. The observations will
then immediately compliment observations by the Great Observatories,
Spitzer and ground base observatories .

NIC2 10849

Imaging Scattered Light from Debris Disks Discovered by the Spitzer
Space Telescope around 21 Sun-like Stars

We propose to use the high-contrast capability of the NICMOS
coronagraph to image a sample of newly discovered circumstellar disks
associated with Sun-like stars. These systems were identified by their
strong thermal infrared {IR} emission with the Spitzer Space Telescope
as part of the Spitzer Legacy Science program titled "The Formation
and Evolution of Planetary Systems" {FEPS, P.I.: M.Meyer}. Modeling of
the thermal excess emission from the spectral energy distributions
alone cannot distinguish between narrowly confined high-opacity disks
and broadly distributed, low-opacity disks. By resolving light
scattered by the circumstellar material, our proposed NICMOS
observations can break this degeneracy, thus revealing the conditions
under which planet formation processes are occuring or have occured.
For three of our IR-excess stars that have known radial-velocity
planets, resolved imaging of the circumstellar debris disks may
further offer an unprecedented view of planet-disk interactions in an
extrasolar planetary system. Even non-detections of the light
scattered by the circumstellar material will place strong constraints
on the disk geometries, ruling out disk models with high optical
depth. Unlike previous disk imaging programs, our program contains a
well-defined sample of ~1 solar mass stars covering a range of ages
from 3 Myr to 3 Gyr, thus allowing us to study the evolution of disks
from primordial to debris for the first time. The results from our
program will greatly improve our understanding of the architecture of
debris disks around Sun-like stars, and will create a morphological
context for the existence of our own solar system. This proposal is
for a continuation of an approved Cycle 14 program {GO/10527, P.I.: D.
Hines}.

ACS/WFC 10829

Secular Evolution at the End of the Hubble Sequence

The bulgeless disk galaxies at the end of the Hubble Sequence evolve
at a glacial pace relative to their more violent, earlier-type
cousins. The causes of their internal, or secular evolution are
important because secular evolution represents the future fate of all
galaxies in our accelerating Universe and is a key ingredient to
understanding galaxy evolution in lower-density environments at
present. The rate of secular evolution is largely determined by the
stability of the cold ISM against collapse, star formation, and the
buildup of a central bulge. Key diagnostics of the ISM's stability are
the presence of compact molecular clouds and narrow dust lanes.
Surprisingly, edge-on, pure disk galaxies with circular velocities
below 120 km/s do not appear to contain such dust lanes. We propose to
obtain ACS/WFC F606W images of a well-selected sample of extremely
late-type disk galaxies to measure the characteristic scale size of
the cold ISM and determine if they possess the unstable, cold ISM
necessary to drive secular evolution. Our sample has been carefully
constructed to include disk galaxies above and below the critical
circular velocity of 120 km/s where the dust properties of edge-on
disks change so remarkably. We will then use surface brightness
profiles to search for nuclear star clusters and pseudobulges, which
are early indicators that secular evolution is at work, as well as
measure the pitch angle of the dust lanes as a function of radius to
estimate the central mass concentrations.

NIC2, ACS/WFC 10802

SHOES-Supernovae, HO, for the Equation of State of Dark energy

The present uncertainty in the value of the Hubble constant {resulting
in an uncertainty in Omega_M} and the paucity of Type Ia supernovae at
redshifts exceeding 1 are now the leading obstacles to determining the
nature of dark energy. We propose a single, integrated set of
observations for Cycle 15 that will provide a 40% improvement in
constraints on dark energy. This program will observe known Cepheids
in six reliable hosts of Type Ia supernovae with NICMOS, reducing the
uncertainty in H_0 by a factor of two because of the smaller
dispersion along the instability strip, the diminished extinction, and
the weaker metallicity dependence in the infrared. In parallel with
ACS, at the same time the NICMOS observations are underway, we will
discover and follow a sample of Type Ia supernovae at z 1. Together,
these measurements, along with prior constraints from WMAP, will
provide a great improvement in HST's ability to distinguish between a
static, cosmological constant and dynamical dark energy. The Hubble
Space Telescope is the only instrument in the world that can make
these IR measurements of Cepheids beyond the Local Group, and it is
the only telescope in the world that can be used to find and follow
supernovae at z 1. Our program exploits both of these unique
capabilities of HST to learn more about one of the greatest mysteries
in science.

ACS/HRC 10801

Direct Determination of Kuiper Belt Object Diameters with HST

When it comes to fundamental properties of an astronomical object, it
is difficult to think of a more fundamental physical property than its
size. Because of their distance, objects in the Kuiper Belt are
generally too small for their disks to be resolved. The heterogeneous
albedo and color of the Kuiper Belt population makes size estimates
from observed absolute magnitude highly uncertain. And the
long-awaited data from the Spitzer Space Telescope suffers from our
ignorance of crucial macro- and micro-physical properties such as spin
period, pole orientation, surface roughness, and thermal inertia. We
propose to add a new dimension to the measurement of KBO diameters by
employing two techniques that will directly measure the diameters of
three large KBOs. We expect to obtain diameter measurements with
uncertainties of 10% or better and utilize these to validate and cross
calibrate the growing web of diameter measurements for KBOs.

ACS/HRC/WFC 10758

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 May, 31 2006- Oct, 1-2006. The
first half of the program has a different proposal number: 10729.

ACS/HRC 10738

Earth Flats

Sky flats will be obtained by observing the bright Earth with the HRC
and WFC. These observations will be used to verify the accuracy of the
flats currently in the pipeline and to monitor any changes. Weekly
coronagraphic monitoring is required to assess the changing position
of the spots.

FGS 10613

Calibrating the Mass-Luminosity Relation at the End of the Main
Sequence

We propose to use HST-FGS1R to calibrate the mass-luminosity relation
{MLR} for stars less massive than 0.2 Msun, with special emphasis on
objects near the stellar/brown dwarf border. Our goals are to
determine M_V values to 0.05 magnitude, masses to 5 than double the
number of objects with masses determined to be less than 0.20 Msun.
This program uses the combination of HST-FGS3/FGS1R at optical
wavelengths and ground-based infrared interferometry to examine
nearby, subarcsecond binary systems. The high precision measurements
with HST-FGS3/FGS1R {to 1 mas in the separations} for these faint
targets {V = 10--15} simply cannot be equaled by any ground based
technique. As a result of these measurements, we are deriving high
quality luminosities and masses for the components in the observed
systems, and characterizing their spectral energy distributions from
0.5 to 2.2 Mum. Several of the objects included have M 0.1 Msun,
placing them at the very end of the stellar main sequence. Three of
the targets are brown dwarf candidates, including the current low mass
record holder, GJ 1245C, with a mass of 0.062 +/- 0.004 Msun. The
payoff of this proposal is high because all 10 of the systems selected
have already been resolved with HST- FGS3/FGS1R during Cycles 5--10
and contain most of the reddest objects for which masses can be
determined.

ACS/HRC 10607

Probing Circumstellar and Interstellar Dust with Scattered-Light
Echoes

Scattered-light echoes are one of the most powerful and efficient
probes of the structure and composition of dust in circumstellar and
interstellar {ISM} environments. Observations of light echoes provide
exact three-dimensional positions of dust while constraining its
density, grain- size and chemical make-up. Furthermore, echoes can be
used as distance indicators via polarization measurements. We propose
to take deep, high-resolution ACS/HRC images of five supernovae {SNe}.
Two of these, SNe 1991T and 1998bu, have known circumstellar echoes
that have only recently become fully resolvable with HST, and
therefore require new observations. Only four echo-producing SNe are
currently known, and in an attempt to increase this sample, we will
also observe SNe 1999bw, 2002hh, and 2004dj. All three SNe are strong
candidates for producing echoes from circumstellar and ISM dust, but
only at angular sizes that HST can resolve. With these observations,
we will use light echoes to their full advantage, to study {1} the
mass-loss histories of Type II and Ia SN progenitors, {2} the
contributions of these SNe and their progenitors to the dust content
of their galaxies, {3} the structure of gas and stars in the ISM of
external galaxies, and {4} we will independently measure the distance
to the host galaxies, including a member of the Virgo cluster, and
M96, a Type Ia cosmological distance- scale calibrator.

NIC1 10517

Imaging Astrometrically-Discovered Brown Dwarfs

We propose to image the astrometrically discovered companions of three
M-dwarfs with NICMOS to more tightly constrain their masses and
determine their stellar or sub-stellar natures. Each of these systems
has been observed with a sensitive ground-based adaptive optics system
and no companions have been detected. NICMOS results will eliminate an
ambiguity in the astrometric mass measurements that arises because a
companion that contributes significantly to the visible light reduces
the motion of the center of light and mimics a small motion of the
center of mass. In addition the astrometric measurements made with
NICMOS will fix the scale of the system, distinguishing among possible
orbits. Finally the color photometry will constrain the spectral types
to within a couple of subtypes. When we measure the masses of
astrophysical objects, we test and assist the development of the
theoretical mass models. Models are based upon parameters such as age
and metallicity. Determining the correct mass thus deepens our
understanding of the fundamental physics of stars and substellar
objects

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 20 20
FGS REacq 09 09
OBAD with Maneuver 57 57
LOSS of LOCK


SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)