Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #3053 – 11 Feb 2002

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

DAILY REPORT #3053

PERIOD COVERED: 0000Z (UTC) 02/08/02 – 0000Z (UTC) 02/11/02

Daily Status Report as of 042/0000Z

1.0 OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED AND ACCOMPLISHED:

1.1 Completed Six Sets of STIS/CCD 8901 (Dark Monitor-Part 1)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor
the darks. There was no anomalous activity.

1.2 Completed Nine Sets of WF/PC-2 8937 (Cycle 9 Supplemental Darks pt2/3)

The WF/PC-2 was used obtain three dark frames every day to provide
data for monitoring and characterizing the evolution of hot pixels. No
problems were encountered.

1.3 Completed Three Sets of WF/PC-2 9060 (Photometry of a Statistically
Significant Sample of Kuiper Belt Objects)

The WF/PC-2 was used to propel the physical study of KBOs forward
by performing accurate photometry at V, R, and I on a sample of up to 150
KBOs. The sample is made up of objects that will be observed at thermal
infrared wavelengths by SIRTF and will be used with those data to derive
the first accurate diameters and albedos for a large sample of KBOs. The
observations completed nominally.

1.4 Completed Three Sets of STIS/CCD 8903 (Bias Monitor – Part 1)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor
ŒØce bias in the 1×1, 1×2, 2×1, and 2×2 bin settings at gain=1, and 1×1 at
gain = 4 to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the evolution of hot
columns. There were no problems.

1.5 Completed Five Sets of WF/PC-2 8942 (Cycle 10 Intflat Sweeps and
Linearity Test)

The WF/PC-2 was used to monitor the pixel-to-pixel flatfield
response and provide a linearity check. These intflat sequences are done
once during the year and the images will provide a backup database in the
event of complete failure of the visflat lamp as well as allow monitoring
of the gain ratios. There were no reported problems.

1.6 Completed Ten Sets of STIS/CCD 9088 (Next Generation Spectral
Library of Stars)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to produce
a “Next Generation” Spectral Library of 600 stars for use in modeling the
integrated light of galaxies and clusters by using the low dispersion UV
and optical gratings of STIS. The library will be roughly equally divided
among four metallicities, very low {Fe/H < -1.5}, low {-1.5 < Fe/H < -0.5}, near-solar {-0.5 < Fe/H < 0.1}, and super-solar {Fe/H > 0.1}, well-sampling
the entire HR-diagram in each bin. Such a library will surpass all extant
compilations and have lasting archival value, well into the Next Generation
Space Telescope era. No problems occurred.

1.7 Completed Twenty Sets of WF/PC-2 9318 (POMS Test Proposal: WFII
Parallel Archive Proposal Continuation)

The WF/PC-2 was used to perform the generic target version of the
WFPC2 Archival Pure Parallel program. The program was used to take
parallel images of random areas of the sky, following the recommendations
of the Parallels Working Group. As described in 2.1 and HSTAR 8494, a
re-acquisition for the fifteenth iteration of this proposal succeeded on
the second attempt, possibly affecting the observations in that
iteration. Then in the nineteenth iteration, per HSTAR 8495, the
acquisition and re-acquisitions all defaulted to fine lock backup on one
FGS only. There were no other reported problems.

1.8 Completed Two Sets of STIS/CCD/MA1 8571 (Metallicity and D/H
Abundance in Low-Z LyAlpha Absorbers towards PG 1211+143)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD and MA1) was used to
continue previous observations along the sightline toward PG 1211+143 that
reveal numerous LyAlpha absorption lines including two very strong LyAlpha
absorbers {cz = 15, 300 and 19, 550 km s^- 1} with associated Si III
absorption. These are the first definite detections of metals in a low-z
LyAlpha forest cloud. Simple photoionization models suggest metallicities
in the range 1–10 sim10^17 cm^-2 in each system. The proposers should be
able to detect deuterium LyAlpha at 10–20 mAngstrom equivalent width,
thereby testing models of D/H astration as a function of IGM metallicity,
an issue of cosmological significance. There were no problems.

1.9 Completed Three Sets of WF/PC-2 8940 (Cycle 10 Earth Flats)

The WF/PC-2 was used to monitor flatfield stability by obtaining
sequences of Earth streak flats to construct high quality flat fields for
the WF/PC-2 filter set. These flat fields will allow mapping of the OTA
illumination pattern and will be used in conjunction with previous internal
and external flats to generate new pipeline superflats. The proposal
completed without incident.

1.10 Completed Three Sets of STIS/MA2 9573 (NUV-MAMA Daily Dark Monitor)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (MA2) was used to perform
daily monitoring of the NUV MAMA detector dark noise in order to monitor
the effects of thermal changes on the NUV dark rate. No problems occurred.

1.11 Completed STIS/CCD 8867 (Gamma-Ray Bursts: Discovering The
Progenitors And Understanding The Explosion – Visits A0-R0)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to observe
a gamma-ray burster, GRB011211. Gamma-ray burst astronomy, one of the most
active and exciting frontiers in astrophysics, is now entering a critical
stage — with dramatic leaps in understanding of these events, as well as
new discoveries. Improvements in triggering and positioning accuracy
provided by the SAX and HETE-2 gamma-ray satellites will allow entirely new
classes of events to be studied. Given the recent progress in this field,
the proposers are now in a position to design precision, broadband
measurements that can provide quantitative information on the as-yet
unknown energy sources, the explosion geometry, and the surrounding
medium. In particular, the growing evidence of an intimate connection
between SNe and GRBs can be definitively tested. The proposal completed
with no reported problems.

1.12 Completed Two Sets of STIS/CCD 9107 (The Fundamental Plane for
Nuclear Black Holes)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to conduct
more in-depth searches for supermassive black holes in galaxy
centers. Previous work has led to the discoveries that {1} most or all hot
galaxies contain massive dark objects at their centers, presumably black
holes; {2} there is a remarkably tight correlation between the black-hole
mass and the luminosity-weighted velocity dispersion of the hot component
of the galaxy. This mbh-Sigma relation has a scatter which is <0.3 dex in mbh and consistent with zero. This relationship suggests a strong link between black-hole formation, AGN activity, and galaxy formation, and once it is understood this link should advance our understanding of all three processes. The goal of this proposal is to investigate the scatter in the mbh-Sigma relation and the role of possible second parameters, by examining a sample of galaxies at fixed velocity dispersion Sigma=200+/- 20 kms. This approach decouples the effects of a second parameter from uncertainties in the shape of the mbh-Sigma relation, and minimizes spurious correlations because all of the galaxies will be studied using the same well-tested observational and modeling techniques. No anomalous activity occurred.

1.13 Completed Two Sets of WF/PC-2 9319 (POMS Test Proposal: WFII
Backup Parallel Archive Proposal II)

The WF/PC-2 was used to execute a POMS test proposal, designed to
simulate future scientific plans. The proposal completed without incident.

1.14 Completed Two Sets of STIS/CCD/MA1 9054 (Star Formation Triggers
and Chemical Reprocessing in I Zw 18)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD and MA1) was used to
observe I Zw 18, a blue compact galaxy {BCD} with the smallest known
abundance of heavy elements yet observed. As described in 2.1 and HSTAR
8494, a re-acquisition for the first iteration of this proposal succeeded
on the second attempt, possibly affecting the observations in that
iteration. Then in the second iteration, per HSTAR