Status Report

NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report # 3650

By SpaceRef Editor
July 10, 2004
Filed under , ,

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE – Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 3650

PERIOD COVERED: DOY 190 (execution start 190/22:00:00Z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/WFC 9727

Exploration of the SN Ia Hubble Diagram at z > 1.2

In the spirit of a Treasury proposal, we propose to organize, and
deliver to the astronomical community, non-proprietary follow-up
observations of ~10 Type Ia supernovae at 1<z<1.7 that are expected to
be discovered in a Cycle 12 Treasury proposal. Together with the
currently available sample, this would provide a Hubble diagram with
over 20 SNe Ia in this redshift range, where it is possible to test
the current cosmological model in the epoch of deceleration: If z ~
0.5 SNe Ia are fainter due to evolution rather than an accelerating
expansion, they should continue to get fainter at even higher
redshifts. This size sample will show trends and outliers, and permit
a more rigorous treatment of the asymmetric amplification distribution
from gravitational lensing. This is a key redshift range for the
studies of dark energy that will be done with future surveys {and
future instruments now being designed}; this dataset will lay the
ground-work for these studies by establishing the simple properties of
the supernovae in this redshift range, including magnitudes, colors,
and timescales. If considered more appropriate, this proposal could be
treated as a part of a Treasury or Director’s Discretionary program,
since the data would be available to everybody immediately, and we
would welcome others who would want to work with us on it.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary
reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be
investigated.) None

COMPLETED OPS REQs: None

OPS NOTES EXECUTED: None

                             SCHEDULED     SUCCESSFUL    FAILURE TIMES
FGS GSacq                 5                             5
FGS 
REacq                 4                             4       
FHST Update              6                             6
LOSS of LOCK

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

Executing Science Mission Specification SB190O00 starting @
190/22:00:00Z. Guide Star acquisitions since resuming science
observations have executed nominally.

SpaceRef staff editor.