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Daily Report # 4360



 
 
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Old May 11th 07, 02:33 PM posted to sci.astro.hubble
Cooper, Joe
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Default Daily Report # 4360

Notice: For the foreseeable future, the daily reports may contain apparent
discrepancies between some proposal descriptions and the listed instrument
usage. This is due to the conversion of previously approved ACS WFC or HRC
observations into WFPC2, or NICMOS observations subsequent to the loss of
ACS CCD science capability in late January.


HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4360

PERIOD COVERED: UT May 10, 2007 (DOY 130)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

WFPC2 10800

Kuiper Belt Binaries: Probes of Early Solar System Evolution

Binaries in the Kuiper Belt are a scientific windfall: in them we have
relatively fragile test particles which can be used as tracers of the early
dynamical evolution of the outer Solar System. We propose to continue a
Snapshot program using the ACS/HRC that has a demonstrated discovery
potential an order of magnitude higher than the HST observations that have
already discovered the majority of known transneptunian binaries. With this
continuation we seek to reach the original goals of this project: to
accumulate a sufficiently large sample in each of the distinct populations
collected in the Kuiper Belt to be able to measure, with statistical
significance, how the fraction of binaries varies as a function of their
particular dynamical paths into the Kuiper Belt. Today's Kuiper Belt bears
the imprints of the final stages of giant-planet building and migration;
binaries may offer some of the best preserved evidence of that long-ago era.

NIC1 11057

Cycle 15 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 15. This proposal is a slightly modified version of proposal 10380 of
cycle 13 and 9993 of cycle12 and is the same as Cycle 14. that we cut down
some exposure time to make the observation fit within 24 orbits.

NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8794

NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 5

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.

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}.

NIC2 10857

Are Organics Common in Outer Planetary Systems?

Mixtures of water ice and organics seem to pervade surfaces in the outer
Solar System, from the rings of Saturn to the Kuiper Belt Objects. The early
Earth was bombarded by the leftover planetesimals from the formation of the
planets, and these must have been rich in both ice and carbon to provide the
building blocks of life. Scattered light from debris disks is remarkably
similar in albedo {total scattering efficiency} and color {red} to the
objects in the outer solar system. Thus, we have a hint that the same
photochemical processes that happened close to home also happen around other
stars. We propose to study the color of two debris disks in some detail.
Scattering of light is the only window available to us to see the
composition of debris disks in a spatially resolved manner and to assess
their potential for containing planets like ours.

WFPC2 10903

Resolving the LMC Microlensing Puzzle: Where are the Lensing Objects?

We are requesting 12 HST orbits to continue to investigate the nature of the
population that gives rise to the microlensing seen towards the LMC. This
proposal builds on the cycle 14 HST program {10583} and will complement the
study with 12 yet-to-be discovered microlensing candidates from Fall 2006.
Our SuperMacho project is an ongoing ground- based survey on the CTIO 4m
that has demonstrated the ability to detect LMC microlensing events via
frame subtraction. The combination of high angular resolution and
photometric accuracy with HST will allow us to 1} confrim that the detected
flux excursions arise from LMC stars, rather than background supernovae or
AGN, and 2} obtain reliable baseline flux measurements for the objects in
their unlensed state. This latter measurement in important in determining
the microlensing optical depth towards the LMC.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

10805 - REacq(2,3,2) failed due to scan step limit exceeded

The REacq(2,3,2) scheduled at 130/13:58:51 failed due to scan step limit
exceeded on FGS 2. OBAD 2 before the REaqc showed errors of V1=1.59,
V2=1.34, V3=9.72, and RSS=9.94.

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSacq 09 09
FGS REacq 05 04
OBAD with Maneuver 28 28

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

Evaluation of Universal Kalman Filter performance continued. Details follow.

Flash Report: Background Kalman Filter Operation, Day 130

A Kalman filter performance test was executed from 130/16:10 to 16:55 per
Ops Request 18071-3. The KF was initialized with CSS and MSS inputs enabled
at 130/16:10. Gyro 2 input to the KF was enabled at 16:28:30 under
slow-changing B-field conditions during an M2G vehicle maneuver. Gyro 2
input to the KF was disabled at 16:40 and CSS input was disabled at 16:52,
returning the KF to the pre-test MSS-only configuration. Kalman filter
convergence and operation during the test was nominal.
 




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