NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report # 3853
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE – Continuing to collect World Class Science
DAILY REPORT # 3853
PERIOD COVERED: DOY 124
OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED
ACS/HRC/WFC 10389
ACS CCDs daily monitor – Cycle 13 – Part 2
This program consists of a set of basic tests to monitor, the read
noise, the development of hot pixels and test for any source of noise
in ACS CCD detectors. The files, biases and dark will be used to
create reference files for science calibration. This programme will be
for the entire lifetime of ACS.
ACS/WFC/WFPC2 10092
The COSMOS 2-Degree ACS Survey
We will undertake a 2 square degree imaging survey {Cosmic Evolution
Survey — COSMOS} with ACS in the I {F814W} band of the VIMOS
equatorial field. This wide field survey is essential to understand
the interplay between Large Scale Structure {LSS} evolution and the
formation of galaxies, dark matter and AGNs and is the one region of
parameter space completely unexplored at present by HST. The
equatorial field was selected for its accessibility to all
ground-based telescopes and low IR background and because it will
eventually contain ~100, 000 galaxy spectra from the VLT-VIMOS
instrument. The imaging will detect over 2 million objects with I> 27
mag {AB, 10 sigma}, over 35, 000 Lyman Break Galaxies {LBGs} and
extremely red galaxies out to z ~ 5. COSMOS is the only HST project
specifically designed to probe the formation and evolution of
structures ranging from galaxies up to Coma-size clusters in the epoch
of peak galaxy, AGN, star and cluster formation {z ~0.5 to 3}. The
size of the largest structures necessitate the 2 degree field. Our
team is committed to the assembly of several public ancillary datasets
including the optical spectra, deep XMM and VLA imaging, ground-based
optical/IR imaging, UV imaging from GALEX and IR data from SIRTF.
Combining the full-spectrum multiwavelength imaging and spectroscopic
coverage with ACS sub-kpc resolution, COSMOS will be Hubble’s ultimate
legacy for understanding the evolution of both the visible and dark
universe.
NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8793
NICMOS Post-SAA calibration – CR Persistence Part 4
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 10176
Coronagraphic Survey for Giant Planets Around Nearby Young Stars
A systematic imaging search for extra-solar Jovian planets is now
possible thanks to recent progress in identifying “young stars near
Earth”. For most of the proposed young {<~ 30 Myrs} and nearby {<~ 60
pc} targets, we can detect a few Jupiter-mass planets as close as a
few tens of AUs from the primary stars. This represents the first time
that potential analogs of our solar system - that is planetary systems
with giant planets having semi-major axes comparable to those of the
four giant planets of the Solar System - come within the grasp of
existing instrumentation. Our proposed targets have not been observed
for planets with the Hubble Space Telescope previously. Considering
the very successful earlier NICMOS observations of low mass brown
dwarfs and planetary disks among members of the TW Hydrae Association,
a fair fraction of our targets should also turn out to posses low mass
brown dwarfs, giant planets, or dusty planetary disks because our
targets are similar to {or even better than} the TW Hydrae stars in
terms of youth and proximity to Earth. Should HST time be awarded and
planetary mass candidates be found, proper motion follow-up of
candidate planets will be done with ground-based AOs.
NIC3 10337
The COSMOS 2-Degree ACS Survey NICMOS Parallels
The COSMOS 2-Degree ACS Survey NICMOS Parallels. This program is a
companion to program 10092.
NIC3/WFPC2 10277
Ages and Metallicities of the Intergalactic Globular Cluster
Population in Abell 1185
We will obtain deep NICMOS observations of a recently discovered
population of intergalactic globular clusters in the nearby galaxy
cluster Abell 1185. These H band observations in conjunction with deep
V and I images that we obtained with ACS in Cycle 11 will allow us to
measure the ages and metallicities of these objects from their optical
and near-infrared colors, which will provide important insights to
their origin. We will also obtain parallel observations with both ACS
and WFPC2. ACS parallel observations will be used to obtain deep
images to search for intergalactic globular clusters in a different
region of Abell 1185. WFPC2 parallel observations will be used to
obtain images of interacting galaxy pair Arp 105, to search for
globular clusters currently being ejected into intergalactic space as
a result of this encounter.
WFPC2 10132
UV Confirmation of New Quasar Sightlines Suitable for the Study of
Intergalactic Helium The reionization of intergalactic helium is
thought to have occurred between redshifts of about 3 and 4. The study
of HeII Lyman-alpha absorption towards a half- dozen quasars at
2.7
emphasis on extending helium studies to the highest redshift
sightlines. Our proposed approach has already proven successful, and
additional sightlines will enable follow-up spectal observations to
measure the spectrum and evolution of the ionizing background
radiation, the density of intergalactic baryons, and the epoch of
reionization of the IGM.
FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:
Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary
reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be
investigated.)
HSTARS:
9795 – ReAcq(1,0,1) requires multiple CT entries @ 116/19:07:03z OTA
SE review of the PTAS processing found that the ReAcq(1,0,1) at
116/19:07:03 required 3 CT entries on FGS1 before achieving CT-DV. The
ReAcq was successful and no science impact should have been seen.
9796 – Guide Star ReAquisition Fails Due to Scan Step Limit Exceeded @
124/19:00:25z Guide Star ReAquisition, Reacq1,2,2, using FGS 1 and 2,
at 124/19:00:25, failed to RGA control, Due to Scan Step Limite
Exceeded on FGS 1.
9797 – ReAcq(1,0,1) requires multiple CT entries @ 117/03:27:24z OTA
SE review of the PTAS processing found that the ReAcq(1,0,1) at
117/03:27:24 required 8 CT entries on FGS1 before achieving CT-DV. The
ReAcq was successful and no science impact should have been seen.
9798 – U2,3RD Roll Delay Update Failed on FHST 2 @ 125/07:10:25z FHST
Roll Delay Update U2,3RD scheduled at 125/07:09:32 failed with error
box results indicating “2 failed” for mnemonics QEBSTFG0, QEBSTFG1,
QEBSTFG2. 486 status buffer message 901 was received at 07:10:25.
GSACQ(1,2,2) at 07:24:03 was successful.
COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)
COMPLETED OPS NOTES:
915-3 – HSTAR Requirements for FHST Map/Update Failures @ 125/07:10:25z
900-1 – Command Problem @ 125/08:40:02z
SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL FAILURE TIMES FGS Gsacq 12 12 FGS Reacq 06 05 124/19:00:25z FHST Update 13 12 125/07:10:25z LOSS of LOCK
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)
