NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #5179

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE – Continuing to Collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #5179

PERIOD COVERED: 5am September 10 – 5am September 13, 2010 (DOY 253/09:00z-256/09:00z)

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:

18902-2 – CU/SDF Lock-up Recovery, Part C @ 253/1541z
18907-0 – Recover WFC3 from suspend mode @ 253/1912z
18908-0 – Safe and then recover ACS @2 53/2222z
18913-1 – Command COS OSM positions @ 253/2022z
18909-1 – Safe and the recover STIS @ 253/2350z
18911-2 – Safe and Recover COS to Operate @ 253/2012z
18912-0 – Recover ESM/PCE/NCS CPL @ 254/0007z
18910-0 – Safe NICMOS @ 253/2024z

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

                       SCHEDULED  SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSAcq               17            17

FGS REAcq               29            29

OBAD with Maneuver      18            18

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

Flash Report:

Payload Recovery commanding was completed at 254/00:09z leaving NICMOS in ‘Safe’ and ACS, STIS, COS, WFC3 and ESM in ‘Operate.’

Flash Report: At 255/00:12z the science SMS was successfully intercepted, the first several STIS and WFC observations were executed in LOS; however, when data was acquired at 01:22 all indications are the observations were successfully collected.

WFC3/IR 12307

A public SNAPSHOT Survey of Gamma-ray Burst Host Galaxies

We propose to conduct a public infrared survey of the host galaxies of Swift selected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) at z<3. By obtaining deep, diffraction limited imaging in the IR we will complete detections for the host galaxies, and in concert with our extensive ground based afterglow and host programmes will compile a detailed catalog of the properties of high-z galaxies selected by GRBs. In particular these observations will enable us to study the colours, luminosities and morphologies of the galaxies. This in turn informs studies of the nature of the progenitors and the role of GRBs as probes of star formation across cosmic history. Ultimately it provides a product of legacy value which will greatly complement further studies with next generation facilities such as ALMA and JWST. WFC3/UV 12245 Orbital Evolution and Stability of the Inner Uranian Moons Nine densely-packed inner moons of Uranus show signs of chaos and orbital instability over a variety of time scales. Many moons show measureable orbital changes within a decade or less. Long-term integrations predict that some moons could collide in less than one million years. One faint ring embedded in the system may, in fact, be the debris left behind from an earlier such collision. Meanwhile, the nearby moon Mab falls well outside the influence of the others but nevertheless shows rapid, as yet unexplained, changes in its orbit. It is embedded within a dust ring that also shows surprising variability. A highly optimized series of observations with WFC3 over the next three cycles will address some of the fundamental open questions about this dynamically active system: Do the orbits truly show evidence of chaos? If so, over what time scales? What can we say about the masses of the moons involved? What is the nature of the variations in Mab’s orbit? Is Mab’s motion predictable or random? Astrometry will enable us to derive the orbital elements of these moons with 10-km precision. This will be sufficient to study the year-by-year changes and, combined with other data from 2003-2007, the decadal evolution of the orbits. The pairing of precise astrometry with numerical integrations will enable us to derive new dynamical constraints on the masses of these moons. Mass is the fundamental unknown quantity currently limiting our ability to reproduce the interactions within this system. This program will also capitalize upon our best opportunity for nearly 40 years to study the unexplained variations in Uranus’s faint outer rings. WFC3/UV/IR 12021 An Irradiated Disk in an Ultraluminous X-Ray Source Whether ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) contain stellar-mass or intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) is an important, but as yet unresolved, astrophysical question. We have discovered variable optical emission from the ULX NGC 5408 X-1 that we interpret as reprocessed emission in an irradiated disk. We propose simultaneous observations with Chandra and HST to test this interpretation and place constraints on the geometry of the accretion disk. The observations should provide a means to discriminate between stellar-mass versus intermediate-mass black holes. WFC3/UVIS 11912 UVIS Internal Flats This proposal will be used to assess the stability of the flat field structure for the UVIS detector throughout the 15 months of Cycle 17. The data will be used to generate on-orbit updates for the delta-flat field reference files used in the WFC3 calibration pipeline, if significant changes in the flat structure are seen. COS/NUV/FUV 11741 Probing Warm-Hot Intergalactic Gas at 0.5 < z < 1.3 with a Blind Survey for O VI, Ne VIII, Mg X, and Si XII Absorption Systems Currently we can only account for half of the baryons (or less) expected to be found in the nearby universe based on D/H and CMB observations. This “missing baryons problem” is one of the highest-priority challenges in observational extragalatic astronomy. Cosmological simulations suggest that the baryons are hidden in low-density, shock-heated intergalactic gas in the log T = 5 – 7 range, but intensive UV and X-ray surveys using O VI, O VII, and O VIII absorption lines have not yet confirmed this prediction. We propose to use COS to carry out a sensitive survey for Ne VIII and Mg X absorption in the spectra of nine QSOs at z(QSO) > 0.89. For the three highest-redshift QSOs, we will also search for Si XII. This survey will provide more robust constraints on the quantity of baryons in warm-hot intergalactic gas at 0.5 < z < 1.3, and the data will provide rich constraints on the metal enrichment, physical conditions, and nature of a wide variety of QSO absorbers in addition to the warm-hot systems. By comparing the results to other surveys at lower redshifts (with STIS, FUSE, and from the COS GTO programs), the project will also enable the first study of how these absorbers evolve with redshift at z < 1. By combining the program with follow-up galaxy redshift surveys, we will also push the study of galaxy-absorber relationships to higher redshifts, with an emphasis on the distribution of the WHIM with respect to the large-scale matter distribution of the universe.