Daily # 4195

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4195

PERIOD COVERED: UT September 08,09,10, 2006 (DOY 251,252,253)

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 10917

Afterglows and Environments of Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts

Discovery of the first afterglows of short-hard bursts {SHBs} has led
to a revolution in our understanding of these events, strongly
suggesting that they originate in the mergers of compact-object
binaries. Capitalizing on this progress, we propose to pursue the next
generation of SHB observations with HST, tracking the decay of all
accessible SHB afterglows to late times and pinpointing the location
of several more within the context of their host galaxies. These
observations will allow quantitative analysis of progenitor lifetimes
and short burst environments, enable direct confrontation with
population synthesis models, and provide updated event rate estimates
for the LIGO and VIRGO gravitational-wave detectors that are now
coming on-line.

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 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/WFC 10882

Emission Line 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. We
discovered new optical jets, dust lanes, and revealed point-like
nuclei whose properties support AGN unified schemes. Here, we propose
to obtain ACS emission line images at low and high excitation of 3CR
sources with z0.3, both low- and classical high- power radio
galaxies, as a major enhancement to an already superb dataset. We aim
to probe fundamental relationships between warm optical line-emitting
gas, radio source structure {jets and lobes} and X-ray coronal halos.
We will combine our existing UV images with new emission- line images
to establish quantitative star formation characteristics and their
relation to dust and merging, and with emission-line excitation maps,
test theories on ionization beam patterns and luminosities from active
nuclei. We will seek jet induced star formation and knowing optical
emission-line physics, investigate quantitative jet physics. The
nuclear emission line properties of the galaxies will themselves be
established and used as ingredients in continuing tests of unified AGN
theories. The resulting database will be an incredibly valuable
resource to the astronomical community for years to come.

ACS/WFC 10881

The Ultimate Gravitational Lensing Survey of Cluster Mass and
Substructure

We propose a systematic and detailed investigation of the mass,
substructure, and thermodynamics of one hundred X-ray luminous galaxy
clusters at 0.15z0.3. The primary goal is to test our recent
suggestion that this population is dominated by dynamically immature
disturbed clusters, and that the observed mass-temperature relation
suffers strong structural segregation. If confirmed, this would
represent a paradigm shift in our observational understanding of
clusters, that were hitherto believed to be dominated by mature,
undisturbed systems. The key observation to this endeavor is Hubble
imaging of cluster cores to identify robustly tangential and radial
multiple arcs and measure the shape of faint galaxies. These strong
and weak lensing signals will give an accurate measure of the total
mass and structure of the dark matter distribution that we will
subsequently compare with X-ray and Sunyaev Zeldovich Effect
observables. The broader applications of our project include 1} the
calibration of mass-temperature and mass-SZE scaling relations which
will be critical for the calibration of proposed dark energy
experiments, and 2} the low redshift baseline study of the
demographics of massive clusters to aid interpretation of future high
redshift {z1} cluster samples. For this ultimate cluster survey, we
request ACS SNAPSHOTS through the F606W filter drawn from a target
list of 143 clusters.

NIC1 10879

A search for planetary-mass companions to the nearest L dwarfs -
completing the survey

We propose to extend the most sensitive survey yet undertaken for very
low-mass companions to ultracool dwarfs. We will use NICMOS to
complete imaging of an all-sky sample of 87 L dwarfs in 80 systems
within 20 parsecs of the Sun. The combination of infrared imaging and
proximity allows us to search for companions with mass ratios q0.25
at separations exceeding ~3 AU, while probing companions with q0.5 at
~1.5 AU separation. This resolution is crucial, since no ultracool
binaries are known in the field with separations exceeding 15 AU.
Fifty L dwarfs from the 20-parsec sample have high-resolution imaging,
primarily through our Cycle 13 HST proposal which identified six new
binaries, including an L/T system. Here, we propose to target the
remaining 30 dwarfs

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 10846

The Halo Structure of RCS2-2327.4-0204

We propose ACS, NICMOS, and Chandra observations of the central region
of the extraordinary and newly discovered galaxy cluster:
RCS2-2327.4-0204 at z=0.700. This cluster shows 3 or more arcs in
ground-based imaging, with an Einstein radius of 49". Such a large
Einstein radius {3-4 times larger than seen in most clusters} has been
seen in precisely one other cluster in the universe - namely Abell
1689 at z=0.18. From our proposed data we expect to see ~70 lensed
source images, from ~20 image families. We will use both strong and
weak lensing constraints from these data to construct the central mass
profile of the cluster, which, when combined with ground based data
extending to a half degree FOV, will allow us to measure critically
important dark matter halo parameters {such as concentration}. The
target cluster is selected from a large ongoing survey with a
well-defined search volume, which allows us to compare our results to
expectations from simulations. We will also compare the lensing
derived mass profiles to the x- ray equivalent measures; this will
illuminate whether the dominant baryonic component is in equilibrium
with the potential. The area of high magnification behind this cluster
is an order of magnitude larger than typical lensing clusters observed
previously by HST; this order of magnitude increase in area directly
translates into a 10 times better chance for finding very high
redshift galaxies. Many of the highest redshift galaxies found to date
have been found behind massive lensing clusters observed by HST, and
we expect to add to that sample dramatically.

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/WFC 10787

Modes of Star Formation and Nuclear Activity in an Early Universe
Laboratory

Nearby compact galaxy groups are uniquely suited to exploring the
mechanisms of star formation amid repeated and ongoing gravitational
encounters, conditions similar to those of the high redshift universe.
These dense groups host a variety of modes of star formation, and they
enable fresh insights into the role of gas in galaxy evolution. With
Spitzer mid-IR observations in hand, we have begun to obtain high
quality, multi-wavelength data for a well-defined sample of 12 nearby
{4500km/s} compact groups covering the full range of evolutionary
stages. Here we propose to obtain sensitive BVI images with the
ACS/WFC, deep enough to reach the turnover of the globular cluster
luminosity function, and WFPC2 U-band and ACS H-alpha images of
Spitzer- identified regions hosting the most recent star formation. In
total, we expect to detect over 1000 young star clusters forming
inside and outside galaxies, more than 4000 old globular clusters in
40 giant galaxies {including 16 early-type galaxies}, over 20 tidal
features, approximately 15 AGNs, and intragroup gas in most of the 12
groups. Combining the proposed ACS images with Chandra observations,
UV GALEX observations, ground-based H-alpha imaging, and HI data, we
will conduct a detailed study of stellar nurseries, dust, gas
kinematics, and AGN.

WFPC2 10767

Further Resolving the Puzzle of Hybrid Star X-rays

Do Alpha TrA {K2II} and Beta Ind {K1II} have previously unrecognized
X-ray active dwarf companions, leading us astray concerning the
coronal properties of the "hybrid-chromosphere" class? Establishing
the true X-ray luminosities of the hybrids is a basis for
understanding magnetic field generation in evolved supergiants, the
driving of their winds, and the seeding of coronal conditions in their
extended outer envelopes. It also bears on the issue of late-type
dwarfs orbiting main sequence B stars, the evolutionary predecessors
of K bright giants. We propose to directly image the putative hybrid
companions using Chandra, with supporting observations from HST/WFPC2.

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 10752

Cycle 14 Focus Monitor

The focus of HST is measured primarily with ACS/HRC over full CVZ
orbits to obtain accurate mean focus values via a well sampled
breathing curve. Coma and astigmatism are also determined from the
same data in order to further understand orbital effects on image
quality and optical alignments. To monitor the stability of ACS to
WFPC2 relative focii, we've carried over from previous focus monitor
programs parallel observations taken with the two cameras at suitable
orientations of previously observed targets, and interspersed them
with the HRC CVZ visits.

ACS/HRC/WFC 10733

CCD Hot Pixel Annealing

Hot pixel annealing will continue to be performed once every 4 weeks.
The CCD TECs will be turned off and heaters will be activated to bring
the detector temperatures to about +20C. This state will be held for
approximately 6 hours, after which the heaters are turned off, the
TECs turned on, and the CCDs returned to normal operating condition.
To assess the effectiveness of the annealing, a bias and four dark
images will be taken before and after the annealing procedure for both
WFC and HRC. The HRC darks are taken in parallel with the WFC darks.
The charge transfer efficiency {CTE} of the ACS CCD detectors declines
as damage due to on-orbit radiation exposure accumulates. This
degradation has been closely monitored at regular intervals, because
it is likely to determine the useful lifetime of the CCDs. We combine
the annealling activity with the charge transfer efficiency monitoring
and also merge into the routine dark image collection. To this end,
the CTE monitoring exposures have been moved into this proposal . 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}.

NIC1/NC2/NC3 10723

Cycle 14 NICMOS dark current, shading profile, and read noise
monitoring program

The purpose of this proposal is to monitor the dark current, read
noise, and shading profile for all three NICMOS detectors throughout
the duration of Cycle 14. This proposal is a slightly modified version
of proposal 10380 of cycle 13 and 9993 of cycle12 that we cut down
some exposure time to make the observation fit within 24 orbits.

ACS/WFC/WFPC2 10584

The link between X-ray source and stellar populations in M81

We propose to perform a deep v~26-27.0 HST-ACS survey of the nearby
{3.6 Mpc} spiral galaxy M~81 in order to study the nature of its X-ray
source populations detected with Chandra. For the first time in a
galaxy other than the Milky-Way or the Magelanic Clouds, we will
classify X-ray sources as High-Mass and Low-Mass X-ray binaries
{HMXBs, LMXBs} and investigate how these populations depend on their
galactic environment. The classification will be performed {a} by
finding and classifying unique optical counterparts for the X-ray
sources and {b} studying the stellar populations in their vicinity.
Both tasks require the 0.1'' resolution of HST-ACS which matches well
the positional accuracy of Chandra. Finally we will use these results
together with X-ray binary evolution synthesis models in order to
constrain X-ray binary {XRB} evolution channels. These data will also
be a great resource for studies of the star-formation and star-
cluster populations in one of the prototypical spiral galaxies.

ACS/HRC 10563

Accurate dark-matter mass profiles in 3 elliptical galaxies as a test
of CDM

A critical test of the successful Lambda-CDM picture for structure
formation is the measurement of the power law exponent, gamma, of the
centre of dark matter density profiles, predicted to lie in the range
1.0-1.5. Measurements of gamma derived from rotation curves of LSB
galaxies appear to contradict CDM, but rely on assumptions that are
difficult to verify {e.g. axisymmetry}. We have recently demonstrated,
using our new `semi-linear' inversion method, how strong gravitational
lensing by galaxies can provide a clean and accurate measurement of
gamma, free of such ambiguities. HST images of lensed non-AGN galaxies
provide hundreds of resolution elements, each a constraint on the mass
profile. Such lenses are exceedingly rare, but we have recently
discovered new systems. We propose deep ACS-HRC observations of 3
systems to measure gamma in each, accurate to 0.15 {95% confidence}
and to obtain an indication of its variation between galaxies. To
establish the required number of orbits we have undertaken an
end-to-end simulation of the problem, creating and analysing synthetic
ACS images. Additionally the semi-linear method simultaneously
reconstructs the pixelised source surface brightness distribution. Our
simulations demonstrate that the fine sampling and small pixel
scattering of the HRC, resolves the morphology of the sources with
exquisite detail.

ACS/WFC/NIC2 10496

Decelerating and Dustfree: Efficient Dark Energy Studies with
Supernovae and Clusters

We propose a novel HST approach to obtain a dramatically more useful
"dust free" Type Ia supernovae {SNe Ia} dataset than available with
the previous GOODS searches. Moreover, this approach provides a
strikingly more efficient search-and-follow-up that is primarily pre-
scheduled. The resulting dark energy measurements do not share the
major systematic uncertainty at these redshifts, that of the
extinction correction with a prior. By targeting massive galaxy
clusters at z 1 we obtain a five-times higher efficiency in
detection of Type Ia supernovae in ellipticals, providing a
well-understood host galaxy environment. These same deep cluster
images then also yield fundamental calibrations required for future
weak lensing and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements of dark energy, as
well as an entire program of cluster studies. The data will make
possible a factor of two improvement on supernova constraints on dark
energy time variation, and much larger improvement in systematic
uncertainty. They will provide both a cluster dataset and a SN Ia
dataset that will be a longstanding scientific resource.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

10424 - GSAcq(2,3,2) failed to RGA control due to step scan limit
exceeded on FGS 2

At AOS 252/12:53:02, GSAcq (2,3,2) scheduled at 252/12:46:08-12:53:31,
showed failed to RGA control due to scan step limit exceeded on FGS 2.
Pre-Acq OBAD #1 unavailable due to LOS, OBAD #2 RSS value 2.30 a-s.
Post-Acq OBAD Map RSS value 4389.76 a-s. REAcq (2,3,2)scheduled at
252/14:22:03-14:29:26, showed failed to RGA control due to scan step
limit exceeded on FGS 2. Pre-Acq OBAD's showed RSS values of 4384.49 &
7.57 a-s respectively. At 252/14:14:26, received one ESB 1805, (FHST
moving target detected).

10425 - GSAcq (2,1,1) failed due to search radius limit exceeded on FGS
2 @253/1252z

At AOS 253/12:52:00, GSAcq (2,1,1) scheduled 253/12:43:32-12:50:49 has
failed due to search radius limit exceeded on FGS 2. A total of six
(6) 486 EBS 1805 (FHST moving target detected) messages were received.
In addition received 486 ESB a05 (exceeded SRL). Pre-Acq OBAD's showed
the following RSS values 3917.30 & 9.38 a-s.

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL
FGS GSacq 24 22
FGS REacq 19 18
OBAD with Maneuver 71 71

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)