Daily Report #4806

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT****** #4806

PERIOD COVERED: 5am March 6 - 5am March 9, 2009 (DOY
*************************** 065/1000z-068/1000z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/SBC 11984

Observing Saturn's High Latitude Polar Auroras

Planetary auroral emissions are critical indicators of how the
magnetospheres of the planets work. Recently, a new component of
Saturn's auroral emissions, i.e. high latitude auroras inside the main
auroral oval, have been observed by the Cassini spacecraft during
otherwise quiet auroral conditions. Such high latitude auroras are of
immense interest since they occur on magnetic flux tubes connected to
a region that is key to the overall dynamics of the system, the
magnetotail, and where if conventional theories regarding Saturn's
magnetosphere are correct there should not be any auroras. These faint
auroral emissions have not been previously observed by the Hubble
Space Telescope (HST). However, the unique oblique viewing geometry
afforded during early 2009 due to Saturn's orbital longitude will
result in the apparent brightening of these polar emissions due to the
limb-brightening effect, with the result that they may be observable
by HST for the first ever time. In addition, at this time the Cassini
spacecraft will be in a high latitude orbit, with a trajectory that
will take it through these magnetic flux tubes, providing essential
simultaneous in situ data. This is the last time Cassini will be in
such an orbit during its mission as currently scheduled and HST is the
only instrument capable of obtaining sustained long-term observations
of Saturn's auroras. These observations will address the following:

Does Saturn exhibit high latitude UV auroras observable by HST? Where
do these auroras occur, and at what altitude? How do these auroras
behave over time? How variable are they? Are they periodic? How do
they behave with respect to other auroral components? What processes
drive these auroras?

Are these auroras generated by processes internal to the magnetosphere
or are they driven by the solar wind? How do the infrared (IR) auroras
relate to the ultraviolet (UV) auroras?

WFPC2 11983

An Imaging Survey of Protoplanetary Disks and Brown Dwarfs in the
Chamaeleon I region

We propose to carry out a HST/WFPC2 survey of young brown dwarfs,
Class I and Class II sources in the Chamaelon I region, one of the
best-studied star-forming regions, in order to investigate the link
between disk evolution and the formation of substellar-mass objects.
We will use deep broad-band imaging in the I and z-equivalent HST
bands to unveil the unknown population of substellar binary
companions, down to a few Jupiter masses for separations of a few tens
of AU. We will also perform narrow-band imaging to directly detect
accreting circumstellar disks and jets around brown dwarfs, Class-I
and class-II objects. Chamaelon I is nearly coeaval of Orion (~1-2Myr)
but at ~1/3 its distance, allowing 3x higher resolution and 10x more
flux for comparable objects. Unlike Orion, low-mass objects and
protoplanetary disks in Chamaeleon I have been extensively studied
with Spitzer, but not yet with the HST. The Chamaeleon I region is an
ideal HST target, as it lies in the CVZ of the HST and therefore it is
easily accessible any time of the year with long orbits.

ACS/SBC 11982

Spanning the Reionization History of IGM Helium: a Large and Efficient
HST Spectral Survey of Far-UV-Bright Quasars

The reionization of IGM helium is thought to have occurred at
redshifts of z=3 to 4. Detailed studies of HeII Lyman-alpha absorption
toward a handful of QSOs at 2.7z3.3 demonstrated the high potential
of such IGM probes, but the small sample size and redshift range limit
confidence in cosmological inferences. The requisite unobscured
sightlines to high-z are extremely rare, but we've cross-correlated
10, 000 z2.8 SDSS DR7 (and other) quasars with GALEX GR4 UV sources
to obtain 550 new, high confidence, sightlines potentially useful for
HST HeII studies; and in cycle 15-16 trials we demonstrated the
efficacy of our SDSS/GALEX selection approach identifying 9 new HeII
quasars at unprecedented 67% efficiency. We propose the first
far-UV-bright HeII quasar survey that is both large in scale and also
efficient, via 2-orbit reconnaissance ACS/SBC prism spectra toward a
highly select subset of 40 new SDSS/GALEX quasars at 3.1z5.1. These
will provide a community resource list that includes 5 far-UV-bright
(restframe) HeII sightlines in each of 8 redshift bins spanning
3.1z3.9 (and perhaps several objects at z4), enabling superb
post-SM4 follow-up spectra with COS or STIS. But simultaneously and
independent of any SM4 uncertainties, we will hereby directly obtain
10-orbit UV spectral stacks from the 5 HeII quasars in each of the 8
redshift bins to trace the reionization history of IGM helium over at
least 3.1z3.9. These spectral stacks will average over cosmic
variance and individual object pathology. Our new high-yield HeII
sightline sample and spectral stacks, covering a large redshift range,
will allow confident conclusions about the spectrum and evolution of
the ionizing background, the evolution of HeII opacity, the density of
IGM baryons, and the epoch of helium reionization.

WFPC2 11981

FUV Imaging Survey of Galactic Open Clusters

We propose a WFPC2 FUV imaging survey of 6 Galactic open clusters with
ages ranging from 1 Myr to 300 Myr complemented with NUV/optical
imaging of the same fields. No such survey has ever been attempted
before in the FUV at the resolution of WFPC2 (indeed, no WFPC2 FUV
images of any Galactic open cluster exist in the HST archive) and,
since WFPC2 will be retired in SM4 and none of the other HST
instruments can do FUV imaging of bright objects, this is the last
chance to do such a survey before another UV telescope is launched.
This survey will provide a new perspective on young/intermediate age
Galactic clusters and a key template for the study of star formation
at high redshift, where the intensity peak we observe in the
optical/NIR from Earth is located in the FUV in its rest frame. For
clusters still associated with an H II region, UV imaging maps the
continuum emission of the ionized gas and the radiation scattered by
background dust and, combined with optical nebular images, can be used
to determine the 3-D structure of the H II region. For all young
clusters, FUV+NUV+optical photometry can be used to study the UV
excesses of T-Tauri stars. For clusters older than ~40 Myr, the same
photometric combination is the easiest method to detect companion
white dwarfs which are invisible using only the optical and NIR. WFPC2
is also an excellent instrument to discover close companions around
bright stars and improve our knowledge of their multiplicity fraction.
Finally, for all clusters, the combination of high-spatial-resolution
UV and optical photometry can be used to simultaneously measure the
temperature, extinction, extinction law, distance, and existence of
companions (resolved and unresolved) and, thus, produce clean HR
diagrams with resolved cluster membership and much-reduced systematic
uncertainties.

WFPC2 11978

Luminous and Dark Matter in Disk Galaxies from Strong Lensing and
Stellar Kinematics

The formation of realistic disk galaxies within the LCDM paradigm is
still an unsolved problem. Theory is only now beginning to make
predictions for how dark matter halos respond to galaxy formation and
for the properties of disk galaxies. Measuring the density profiles of
dark matter halos on galaxy scales is therefore a strong test for the
standard paradigm of galaxy formation, offering great potential for
discovery. However, from an observational point of view, the
degeneracy between the stellar and dark matter contributions to galaxy
rotation curves remains a major road block. Strong gravitational
lensing, when coupled to spatially-resolved kinematics and stellar
population models, can solve this long-standing problem.
Unfortunately, this joint methodology could not be exploited so far
due to the paucity of known edge-on spiral lenses. Exploiting the full
SDSS-DR7 archive we have identified a new sample of exactly these
systems. We propose multi-color HST imaging to confirm and measure a
sample of twenty spiral lenses, covering a range of bulge to disk
ratios. By combining dynamical lensing and stellar population
information for this unique sample we will deliver the first
statistical constraints on halos and disk properties, and a new
stringent test of disk galaxy formation theories.

WFPC2 11975

UV Light from Old Stellar Populations: a Census of UV Sources in
Galactic Globular Clusters

In spite of the fact that HST has been the only operative
high-resolution eye in the UV-window over the last 18 years, no
homogeneous UV survey of Galactic globular clusters (GGCs) has been
performed to date. In order to fill this gap in the stellar population
studies, we propose a program that exploits the unique capability of
the WFPC2 and the SBC in the far-/mid- UV for securing deep UV imaging
of 46 GGCs. The proposed observations will allow to study with
unprecedented accuracy the hottest GGC stars, comprising the extreme
horizontal branch (HB) stars and their progeny (the so-called
AGB-manque', and Post-early AGB stars), and "exotic stellar
populations" like the blue straggler stars and the interacting
binaries. The targets have been selected to properly sample the GGC
metallicity/structural parameter space, thus to unveil any possible
correlation between the properties of the hot stellar populations and
the cluster characteristics. In addition, most of the targets have
extended HB "blue tails", that can be properly studied only by means
of deep UV observations, expecially in the far-UV filters like the
F160BW, that is not foreseen on the WFC3. This data base is
complemented with GALEX observations in the cluster outermost regions,
thus allowing to investigate any possible trend of the UV-bright
stellar types over the entire radial extension of the clusters.
Although the hottest GGC stars are just a small class of "special"
objects, their study has a broad relevance in the context of structure
formation and chemical evolution in the early Universe, bringing
precious information on the basic star formation processes and the
origin of blue light from galaxies. Indeed, the proposed observations
will provide the community with an unprecedented data set suitable for
addressing a number of still open astrophysical questions, ranging
from the main drivers of the HB morphology and the mass loss
processes, to the origin of the UV upturn in elliptical galaxies, the
dating of distant systems from integrated light, and the complex
interplay between stellar evolution and dynamics in dense stellar
aggregates. In the spirit of constructing a community resource, we
entirely waive the proprietary period for these observations.

WFPC2 11972

Investigating the Early Solar System with Distant Comet Nuclei

We propose 85 orbits of imaging observations with the WFPC2 to get
nucleus size estimates for 8 well observed dynamically new and
long-period comets at large distances from the sun when their activity
levels are low. This will increase the sample of these nucleus sizes
by nearly 50%, but will more than double the selection of comets for
which we can run thermal models. Small icy bodies are the best
preserved remnants of planet formation, and we have recently found
that observationally constrained thermal models can distinguish
differences in microphysical properties of comet nuclei. The new HST
data will enable the first exploration of physical conditions in
different regions of the early solar nebula.

FGS 11788

The Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems

Are all planetary systems coplanar? Concordance cosmogony makes that
prediction. It is, however, a prediction of extrasolar planetary
system architecture as yet untested by direct observation for main
sequence stars other than the Sun. To provide such a test, we propose
to carry out FGS astrometric studies on four stars hosting seven
companions. Our understanding of the planet formation process will
grow as we match not only system architecture, but formed planet mass
and true distance from the primary with host star characteristics for
a wide variety of host stars and exoplanet masses.

We propose that a series of FGS astrometric observations with
demonstrated 1 millisecond of arc per-observation precision can
establish the degree of coplanarity and component true masses for four
extrasolar systems: HD 202206 (brown dwarf+planet); HD 128311
(planet+planet), HD 160691 = mu Arae (planet+planet), and HD 222404AB
= gamma Cephei (planet+star). In each case the companion is identified
as such by assuming that the minimum mass is the actual mass. For the
last target, a known stellar binary system, the companion orbit is
stable only if coplanar with the AB binary orbit.

FGS 11785

Trigonometric Calibration of the Distance Scale for Classical Novae

The distance scale for classical novae is important for understanding
the stellar physics of their thermonuclear runaways, their
contribution to Galactic nucleosynthesis, and their use as
extragalactic standard candles. Although it is known that there is a
relationship between their absolute magnitudes at maximum light and
their subsequent rates of decline--the well-known maximum-magnitude
rate-of-decline (MMRD) relation--it is difficult to set the zero-point
for the MMRD because of the very uncertain distances of Galactic
novae.

We propose to measure precise trigonometric parallaxes for the
quiescent remnants of the four nearest classical novae. We will use
the Fine Guidance Sensors, which are proven to be capable of measuring
parallaxes with errors of ~0.2 mas, well below what is possible from
the ground.

ACS/SBC 11579

The Difference Between Neutral- and Ionized-Gas Metal Abundances in
Local Star-Forming Galaxies with COS

The metallicity of galaxies and its evolution with redshift is of
paramount importance for understanding galaxy formation. Abundances in
the interstellar medium (ISM) are typically determined using
emission-line spectroscopy of HII regions. However, since HII regions
are associated with recent SF they may not have abundances typical for
the galaxy as a whole. This is true in particular for star-forming
galaxies (SFGs), in which the bulk of the metals may be contained in
the neutral gas. It is therefore important to directly probe the metal
abundances in the neutral gas. This can be done using absorption lines
in the Far UV. We have developed techniques to do this in SFGs, where
the absorption is measured for sightlines toward bright SF regions
within the galaxy itself. We have successfully applied this technique
to a sample of galaxies observed with FUSE. The results have been very
promising, suggesting in I Zw 18 that abundances in the neutral gas
may be up to 0.5 dex lower than in the ionized gas. However, the
interpretation of the FUSE data is complicated by the very large FUSE
aperture (30 arcsec), the modest S/N, and the limited selection of
species available in the FUSE bandpass. The advent of COS on HST now
allows a significant advance in all of these areas. We will therefore
obtain absorption line spectroscopy with G130M in the same sample for
which we already have crude constraints from FUSE. We will obtain
ACS/SBC images to select the few optimal sightlines to target in each
galaxy. The results will be interpreted through line-profile fitting
to determine the metal abundances constrained by the available lines.
The results will provide important new insights into the metallicities
of galaxies, and into outstanding problems at high redshift such as
the observed offset between the metallicities of Lyman Break Galaxies
and Damped Lyman Alpha systems.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

11709 - REAcq (1,2,2) failed due to Scan Step Limit Exceeded on FGS-1
@ 067/01:08:53z

Observations affected: WFPC 66-70, Proposal ID# 11972

11710 - At 067/02:44:25, REAcq (1,2,2) failed due to QF1STOPF flag on
FGS-1. The REAcq was scheduled from 067/02:41:24 - 02:48:43.

Observations affected: WFPC 71 - 74, Proposal ID# 11972

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

*********************** SCHEDULED***** SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSAcq************** 15****************** 15
FGS REAcq************** 25****************** 23
OBAD with Maneuver **** 80****************** 80

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)