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Daily Report #5159



 
 
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Old August 13th 10, 12:10 PM posted to sci.astro.hubble
Cooper, Joe
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Default Daily Report #5159

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5159

PERIOD COVERED: 5am August 12 - 5am August 13, 2010 (DOY 223/09:00z-224/09:00z)

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

12353 - GSAcq(2,1,1) at 224/10:01:19z and REAcq(2,1,1) at 224/11:33z
Resulted in Fine Lock Backup on FGS2.

Observations possibly affected ACS 49-60 Proposal ID#11655; WFC3
116-118 Proposal ID#11905.

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL
FGS GSAcq 10 10
FGS REAcq 07 07
OBAD with Maneuver 09 09

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/WFC 11655

Dynamics of the Galactic Bulge/bar

We request second-epoch ACS observations of four star fields in the
Galactic bar. These will allow us to measure proper motions for tens
of thousands of stars well below the turnoff, to construct a dynamical
model for the bulge/bar (in combination with data already in hand from
other HST fields, and from VLT spectroscopy), and hence to take a
unique look at the internal dynamical structure of the central regions
of our Galaxy. By relating the kinematics with stellar population we
can elucidate the formation history of the bulge and bar, and their
relation to the surrounding Galactic disk. This is a resubmission of
an approved Cycle 15 proposal that was hit by the ACS malfunction.

ACS/WFC/WFC3/IR/UV 12056

A Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury - I

We propose to image the north east quadrant of M31 to deep limits in
the UV, optical, and near-IR. HST imaging should resolve the galaxy
into more than 100 million stars, all with common distances and
foreground extinctions. UV through NIR stellar photometry (F275W,
F336W with WFC3/UVIS, F475W and F814W with ACS/WFC, and F110W and
F160W with WFC3/NIR) will provide effective temperatures for a wide
range of spectral types, while simultaneously mapping M31's
extinction. Our central science drivers are to: understand high-mass
variations in the stellar IMF as a function of SFR intensity and
metallicity; capture the spatially-resolved star formation history of
M31; study a vast sample of stellar clusters with a range of ages and
metallicities. These are central to understanding stellar evolution
and clustered star formation; constraining ISM energetics; and
understanding the counterparts and environments of transient objects
(novae, SNe, variable stars, x-ray sources, etc.). As its legacy, this
survey adds M31 to the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds as a
fundamental calibrator of stellar evolution and star-formation
processes for understanding the stellar populations of distant
galaxies. Effective exposure times are 977s in F275W, 1368s in F336W,
4040s in F475W, 4042s in F814W, 699s in F110W, and 1796s in F160W,
including short exposures to avoid saturation of bright sources. These
depths will produce photon-limited images in the UV. Images will be
crowding-limited in the optical and NIR, but will reach below the red
clump at all radii. The images will reach the Nyquist sampling limit
in F160W, F475W, and F814W.

COS/NUV 11705

Physical Properties of Quasar Outflows: From BALs to Mini-BALs

Accretion disk outflows are important components of quasar
environments. They might play a major role in facilitating accretion,
regulating star formation in the host galaxies and distributing metals
to the surrounding gas. They reveal themselves most conspicuously via
broad absorption lines (BALs), but they appear even more frequently in
other guises such as the weaker and narrower "mini-BALs." How are
these diverse outflow features related? Are mini-BALs really just
"mini" versions of the BALs, or do they represent a fundamentally
different type of outflow, with different degrees of ionization,
column densities, mass loss rates, physical origins, etc.?

We propose HST-COS spectroscopy to make the first quantitative
assessment of the outflow physical conditions across the full range of
weak/narrow mini-BALs to strong/broad BALs. Our strategy is to measure
key diagnostic lines (SVI, OVI, CIII, SIV, PV, etc.) at 930A - 1130A
(rest- frame) in a sample of 7 outflow quasars with known mini-BALs
through weak BALs. We will then 1) combine the COS data with
ground-based spectra of the same quasars to include more lines (CIV,
SiIV) at longer wavelengths, and 2) include in our analysis a nearly
identical UV/optical dataset obtained previously for a sample of
quasars with strong BALs. Our study of this combined dataset will be
an essential next step toward a more global understanding of quasar
outflows.

STIS/CCD 11845

CCD Dark Monitor Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.

STIS/CCD 11847

CCD Bias Monitor-Part 2

Monitor the bias in the 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 bin settings at gain=1,
and 1x1 at gain = 4, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the
evolution of hot columns.

WFC3/ACS/IR 11563

Galaxies at z~7-10 in the Reionization Epoch: Luminosity Functions to
0.2L* from Deep IR Imaging of the HUDF and HUDF05 Fields

The first generations of galaxies were assembled around redshifts
z~7-10+, just 500-800 Myr after recombination, in the heart of the
reionization of the universe. We know very little about galaxies in
this period. Despite great effort with HST and other telescopes, less
than ~15 galaxies have been reliably detected so far at z7,
contrasting with the ~1000 galaxies detected to date at z~6, just
200-400 Myr later, near the end of the reionization epoch. WFC3 IR can
dramatically change this situation, enabling derivation of the galaxy
luminosity function and its shape at z~7-8 to well below L*,
measurement of the UV luminosity density at z~7-8 and z~8-9, and
estimates of the contribution of galaxies to reionization at these
epochs, as well as characterization of their properties (sizes,
structure, colors). A quantitative leap in our understanding of early
galaxies, and the timescales of their buildup, requires a total sample
of ~100 galaxies at z~7-8 to ~29 AB mag. We can achieve this with 192
WFC3 IR orbits on three disjoint fields (minimizing cosmic variance):
the HUDF and the two nearby deep fields of the HUDF05. Our program
uses three WFC3 IR filters, and leverages over 600 orbits of existing
ACS data, to identify, with low contamination, a large sample of over
100 objects at z~7-8, a very useful sample of ~23 at z~8-9, and limits
at z~10. By careful placement of the WFC3 IR and parallel ACS
pointings, we also enhance the optical ACS imaging on the HUDF and a
HUDF05 field. We stress (1) the need to go deep, which is paramount to
define L*, the shape, and the slope alpha of the luminosity function
(LF) at these high redshifts; and (2) the far superior performance of
our strategy, compared with the use of strong lensing clusters, in
detecting significant samples of faint z~7-8 galaxies to derive their
luminosity function and UV ionizing flux. Our recent z~7.4 NICMOS
results show that wide-area IR surveys, even of GOODS-like depth,
simply do not reach faint enough at z~7-9 to meet the LF and UV flux
objectives. In the spirit of the HDF and the HUDF, we will waive any
proprietary period, and will also deliver the reduced data to STScI.
The proposed data will provide a Legacy resource of great value for a
wide range of archival science investigations of galaxies at redshifts
z~2-9. The data are likely to remain the deepest IR/optical images
until JWST is launched, and will provide sources for spectroscopic
follow up by JWST, ALMA and EVLA.

WFC3/IR 11696

Infrared Survey of Star Formation Across Cosmic Time

We propose to use the unique power of WFC3 slitless spectroscopy to
measure the evolution of cosmic star formation from the end of the
reionization epoch at z6 to the close of the galaxy- building era at
z~0.3.Pure parallel observations with the grisms have proven to be
efficient for identifying line emission from galaxies across a broad
range of redshifts. The G102 grism on WFC3 was designed to extend this
capability to search for Ly-alpha emission from the first galaxies.
Using up to 250 orbits of pure parallel WFC3 spectroscopy, we will
observe about 40 deep (4-5 orbit) fields with the combination of G102
and G141, and about 20 shallow (2-3 orbit) fields with G141 alone.

Our primary science goals at the highest redshifts a (1) Detect Lya
in ~100 galaxies with z5.6 and measure the evolution of the Lya
luminosity function, independent of of cosmic variance; 2) Determine
the connection between emission line selected and continuum-break
selected galaxies at these high redshifts, and 3) Search for the
proposed signature of neutral hydrogen absorption at re-ionization. At
intermediate redshifts we will (4) Detect more than 1000 galaxies in
Halpha at 0.5z1.8 to measure the evolution of the
extinction-corrected star formation density across the peak epoch of
star formation. This is over an order-of-magnitude improvement in the
current statistics, from the NICMOS Parallel grism survey. (5) Trace
``cosmic downsizing" from 0.5z2.2; and (6) Estimate the evolution in
reddening and metallicty in star- forming galaxies and measure the
evolution of the Seyfert population. For hundreds of spectra we will
be able to measure one or even two line pair ratios -- in particular,
the Balmer decrement and [OII]/[OIII] are sensitive to gas reddening
and metallicity. As a bonus, the G102 grism offers the possibility of
detecting Lya emission at z=7-8.8.

To identify single-line Lya emitters, we will exploit the wide
0.8--1.9um wavelength coverage of the combined G102+G141 spectra. All
[OII] and [OIII] interlopers detected in G102 will be reliably
separated from true LAEs by the detection of at least one strong line
in the G141 spectrum, without the need for any ancillary data. We
waive all proprietary rights to our data and will make high-level data
products available through the ST/ECF.

WFC3/IR/S/C 11929

IR Dark Current Monitor

Analyses of ground test data showed that dark current signals are more
reliably removed from science data using darks taken with the same
exposure sequences as the science data, than with a single dark
current image scaled by desired exposure time. Therefore, dark current
images must be collected using all sample sequences that will be used
in science observations. These observations will be used to monitor
changes in the dark current of the WFC3-IR channel on a day-to-day
basis, and to build calibration dark current ramps for each of the
sample sequences to be used by Gos in Cycle 17. For each sample
sequence/array size combination, a median ramp will be created and
delivered to the calibration database system (CDBS).

WFC3/UVIS 11903

UVIS Photometric Zero Points

This proposal obtains the photometric zero points in 53 of the 62
UVIS/WFC3 filters: the 18 broad-band filters, 8 medium-band filters,
16 narrow-band filters, and 11 of the 20 quad filters (those being
used in cycle 17). The observations will be primary obtained by
observing the hot DA white dwarf standards GD153 and G191-B2B. A
redder secondary standard, P330E, will be observed in a subset of the
filters to provide color corrections. Repeat observations in 16 of the
most widely used cycle 17 filters will be obtained once per month for
the first three months, and then once every second month for the
duration of cycle 17, alternating and depending on target
availability. These observations will enable monitoring of the
stability of the photometric system. Photometric transformation
equations will be calculated by comparing the photometry of stars in
two globular clusters, 47 Tuc and NGC 2419, to previous measurements
with other telescopes/instruments.

WFC3/UVIS 11905

WFC3 UVIS CCD Daily Monitor

The behavior of the WFC3 UVIS CCD will be monitored daily with a set
of full-frame, four-amp bias and dark frames. A smaller set of 2Kx4K
subarray biases are acquired at less frequent intervals throughout the
cycle to support subarray science observations. The internals from
this proposal, along with those from the anneal procedure (Proposal
11909), will be used to generate the necessary superbias and superdark
reference files for the calibration pipeline (CDBS).

WFC3/UVIS/IR 11702

Search for Very High-z Galaxies with WFC3 Pure Parallel

WFC3 will provide an unprecedented probe to the early universe beyond
the current redshift frontier. Here we propose a pure parallel program
using this new instrument to search for Lyman-break galaxies at
6.5z8.8 and to probe the epoch of reionization, a hallmark event in
the history of the early universe. We request 200 orbits, spreading
over 30 ~ 50 high Galactic latitude visits (|b|20deg) that last for 4
orbits and longer, resulting a total survey area of about 140~230
square arcminute. Based on our understanding of the new HST parallel
observation scheduling process, we believe that the total number of
long-duration pure parallel visits in Cycle 17 should be sufficient to
accommodate our program. We waive all proprietary rights to our data,
and will also make the enhanced data products public in a timely
manner.

(1) We will use both the UVIS and the IR channels, and do not need to
seek optical data from elsewhere.

(2) Our program will likely triple the size of the probable candidate
samples at z~7 and z~8, and will complement other targeted programs
aiming at the similar redshift range.

(3) Being a pure parallel program, our survey will only make very
limited demand on the scarce HST resources. More importantly, as the
pure parallel pointings will be at random sight-lines, our program
will be least affected by the bias due to the large scale structure
("cosmic variance").

(4) We aim at the most luminous LBG population, and will address the
bright-end of the luminosity function at z~8 and z~7. We will
constrain the value of L* in particular, which is critical for
understanding the star formation process and the stellar mass assembly
history in the first few hundred million years of the universe.

(5) The candidates from our survey, most of which will be the
brightest ones that any surveys would be able to find, will have the
best chance to be spectroscopically confirmed at the current 8--10m
telescopes.

(6) We will also find a large number of extremely red, old galaxies at
intermediate redshifts, and the fine spatial resolution offered by the
WFC3 will enable us constrain their formation history based on the
study of their morphology, and hence shed light on their connection to
the very early galaxies in the universe.

 




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