NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #4017

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE – Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT #4017

PERIOD COVERED: UT December 28, 2005 (DOY 362)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/HRC 10512

Search for Binaries Among Faint Jupiter Trojan Asteroids

We propose an ambitious SNAPSHOT program to survey faint Jupiter Trojan asteroids for binary companions. We target 150 objects, with the expectation of acquiring data on about 50%. These objects span Vmag = 17.5-19.5, a range inaccessible with ground-based adaptive optics. We now have a significant sample from our survey of brighter Trojans to suggest that the binary fraction is similar to that which we find among brighter main-belt asteroids, roughly 2%. However, our observations suggest a higher binary fraction for smaller main-belt asteroids, probably the result of a different formation mechanism {evident also from the physical characteristics of the binaries}. Because the collision environment among the Trojans is similar to that of the Main Belt, while the composition is likely to be very different, sampling the binary fraction among the fainter Trojans should help us understand the collisional and binary formation mechanisms at work in various populations, including the Kuiper Belt, and help us evaluate theories for the origin of the Trojans. Calibration of and constraints on models of binary production and collisional evolution can only be done using these large-scale, real-life physical systems that we are beginning now to find and utilize.

ACS/HRC/WFC 10729

ACS CCDs daily monitor

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. Changes from cycle 13:- The default gain for WFC is 2 e-/DN. As before bias frames will be collected for both gain 1 and gain 2. Dark frames are acquired using the default gain {2}. This program cover the period Oct, 2 2005- May, 29-2006. The second half of the program has a different proposal number: 10758.

ACS/WFC 10574

Witnessing Galaxy Transformation in Galaxy Groups at z > 1

The recent discover of five galaxy groups in the Lynx supercluster region offers us the exciting opportunity to observe for the first time groups in the process of collapsing into a merging pair of clusters at z > 1. Our current picture of structure formation suggests that substantial evolution of galaxy properties can occur in groups and filaments well before they enter the environs of massive clusters. However, neither current theoretical models nor observations give us a complete understanding of the relative importance of the different physical processes that control the structural and spectral transformations that occur prior to, during, and after infall into a dense environment. We propose direct observation of these newly discovered dynamically young structures in the Lynx region, in order to provide a critical benchmark in testing not only whether galaxy evolution occurs mostly prior to entry into the densest regions but will also constrain the relative importance of initial conditions in determining the fate of galaxy systems. Our analysis of these proposed ACS measurements will be complemented with an unique dataset we have already in the optical, infrared, mid-infrared, and X-ray.

WFPC2 10608

Probing the star formation law in the extreme outer limits of M83, a prototypical XUV-disk galaxy

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer {GALEX} has discovered a new sub-class of spiral galaxy, which we refer to as extended UV-disk {XUV-disk} galaxies. They are distinguished by conspicuous UV-bright star clusters located at galactocentric radii extending to many times the optical {R25} extent, and appear to represent a population of spiral galaxies still actively building, or augmenting, their stellar disk. However, XUV-disks pose a mystery in the form of a relative lack of HII regions {traced by H-alpha emission} associated with outer disk, UV-bright stellar clusters. M83 is an XUV-disk prototype and the focus of this proposal. It has an H-alpha surface brightness profile characterized by a steep decline at the radius beyond which the gaseous disk is thought to become dynamically stable {against collapse and ensuing star formation}, but GALEX UV profiles show no “edge” at this location. Our HST study of M83 aims to resolve this puzzling discrepancy, confirmed in several XUV-disks, by searching for Lyman-continuum producing O stars that are either absent or present without nebulosity. HST provides the only means of resolving individual massive stars in the FUV band at M83’s distance. Without HST, we lose the critical ability to photometrically classify O and B stars. Our multiwavelength observations will also constrain the history of star formation in the outer disk over Gyr timescales by characterizing the evolved stellar population, both using resolved giants and color analysis of the diffuse background.

WFPC2/ACS/WFC 10590

Star-Formation History of an Unmerged Fragment: the Leo A Dwarf Galaxy

The Leo A dwarf irregular is the only known Local Group galaxy that on the weight of current evidence has been suggested to have experienced its first star formation within the past 2-3 billion years. As a galaxy that could have been almost purely gaseous during the epoch of giant galaxy assembly, Leo A is the best nearby candidate to be a redshift zero analogue to the major building blocks of the Milky Way. We propose to obtain deep optical images of Leo A with the ACS/WFC to achieve three main goals: 1} To establish the fractions of star-formation, by mass, that occurred prior and subsequent to the main epoch of hierarchical merging {redshift z ~ 2-4, Age ~ 10-12.5 Gigayears}; 2} to measure the time variation in Leo A’s star-formation rate over the past 10 Gyr, based on statistical analyses of its {V-I, I} color-magnitude diagram; and 3} to measure the radial distributions of young and old stellar populations and quantify the degree to which the optically prominent, young population is embedded in an extended, low-surface brightness sheet or halo of ancient stars. Because of the distance modulus {24.5 mag} and high degree of stellar crowding at the level of the oldest main-sequence turnoffs, the observations necessary to achieve these goals are unobtainable except with HST. The ONLY way to reliably derive the star-formation history of Leo A over its entire lifetime is with photometry to magnitudes of {B, I} = {28.6, 27.9}, the level of the oldest main-sequence turnoff in Leo A. These data would confirm and extend the limited inferences obtained from WFPC2 photometry over 2 magnitudes less deep, and provide the first opportunity to measure the complete star-formation history of a potential “living fossil” analogue to the building blocks of the Milky Way. We propose to use WFPC2 in parallel to measure radial variations in the stellar populations between the galaxy’s core and outskirts. Because the expected 2-gyro jitter ellipse is comparable to the pixel scale of ACS/WFC, we rely on point-spread function fitting photometry, and we require no special scheduling constraints, our proposed program would be virtually unaffected by entry into 2-gyro mode.

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: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

                           SCHEDULED      SUCCESSFUL
FGS GSacq                 08                    08
FGS REacq                 07                    07
OBAD with Maneuver    30                    30

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)