NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report: # 4499
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE DAILY REPORT # 4499
– Continuing to collect World Class Science
PERIOD COVERED: UT December 4, 2007 (DOY 338)
OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED
ACS/SBC 10907
New Sightlines for the Study of Intergalactic Helium: A Dozen High-Confidence, UV-Bright Quasars from SDSS/GALEX
The reionization of intergalactic helium is thought to have occurred between redshifts of about 3 and 4. Detailed study of HeII Lyman-alpha absorption toward a handful quasars at 2.7
WFPC2 10829
Secular Evolution at the End of the Hubble Sequence
The bulgeless disk galaxies at the end of the Hubble Sequence evolve at a glacial pace relative to their more violent, earlier-type cousins. The causes of their internal, or secular evolution are important because secular evolution represents the future fate of all galaxies in our accelerating Universe and is a key ingredient to understanding galaxy evolution in lower-density environments at present. The rate of secular evolution is largely determined by the stability of the cold ISM against collapse, star formation, and the buildup of a central bulge. Key diagnostics of the ISM’s stability are the presence of compact molecular clouds and narrow dust lanes. Surprisingly, edge-on, pure disk galaxies with circular velocities below 120 km/s do not appear to contain such dust lanes. We propose to obtain ACS/WFC F606W images of a well-selected sample of extremely late-type disk galaxies to measure the characteristic scale size of the cold ISM and determine if they possess the unstable, cold ISM necessary to drive secular evolution. Our sample has been carefully constructed to include disk galaxies above and below the critical circular velocity of 120 km/s where the dust properties of edge-on disks change so remarkably. We will then use surface brightness profiles to search for nuclear star clusters and pseudobulges, which are early indicators that secular evolution is at work, as well as measure the pitch angle of the dust lanes as a function of radius to estimate the central mass concentrations.
WFPC2 11024
WFPC2 CYCLE 15 INTERNAL MONITOR
This calibration proposal is the Cycle 15 routine internal monitor for WFPC2, to be run weekly to monitor the health of the cameras. A variety of internal exposures are obtained in order to provide a monitor of the integrity of the CCD camera electronics in both bays {both gain 7 and gain 15 — to test stability of gains and bias levels}, a test for quantum efficiency in the CCDs, and a monitor for possible buildup of contaminants on the CCD windows. These also provide raw data for generating annual super-bias reference files for the calibration pipeline.
NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8794
NICMOS Post-SAA calibration – CR Persistence Part 5
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 DARKs. 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 11197
Sweeping Away the Dust: Reliable Dark Energy with an Infrared Hubble Diagram
We propose building a high-z Hubble Diagram using type Ia supernovae observed in the infrared rest-frame J-band. The infrared has a number of exceptional properties. The effect of dust extinction is minimal, reducing a major systematic that may be biasing dark energy measurements. Also, recent work indicates that type Ia supernovae are true standard candles in the infrared meaning that our Hubble diagram will be resistant to possible evolution in the Phillip’s relation over cosmic time. High signal-to-noise measurements of 16 type Ia events at z~0.4 will be compared with an independent optical Hubble diagram from the ESSENCE project to test for a shift in the derived dark energy equation of state due to a systematic bias. In Cycle 15 we obtained NICMOS photometry of 8 ESSENCE supernovae and are awaiting template observations to place them on the IR Hubble diagram. Here we request another 8 supernovae be studied in the final season of the ESSENCE search. Because of the bright sky background, H-band photometry of z~0.4 supernovae is not feasible from the ground. Only the superb image quality and dark infrared sky seen by HST makes this test possible. This experiment may also lead to a better, more reliable way of mapping the expansion history of the universe with the Joint Dark Energy Mission.
NIC3 11080
Exploring the Scaling Laws of Star Formation
As a variety of surveys of the local and distant Universe are approaching a full census of galaxy populations, our attention needs to turn towards understanding and quantifying the physical mechanisms that trigger and regulate the large-scale star formation rates {SFRs} in galaxies.
WFPC2 11029
WFPC2 CYCLE 15 Intflat Linearity Check and Filter Rotation Anomaly Monitor
Intflat observations will be taken to provide a linearity check: the linearity test consists of a series of intflats in F555W, in each gain and each shutter. A combination of intflats, visflats, and earthflats will be used to check the repeatability of filter wheel motions. {Intflat sequences tied to decons, visits 1-18 in prop 10363, have been moved to the cycle 15 decon proposal xxxx for easier scheduling.} Note: long-exposure WFPC2 intflats must be scheduled during ACS anneals to prevent stray light from the WFPC2 lamps from contaminating long ACS external exposures.
WFPC2 11032
CTE Extended Targets Closeout
Measuring the charge transfer efficiency {CTE} of an astronomical CCD camera is crucial to determining the CCD’s photometric fidelity across the field of view. WFPC2’s CTE has degraded steadily over the last 13 years because of continuous exposure to trapped particles in HST’s radiation environment. The fraction of photometric signal lost from WFPC2’s CTI {change transfer inefficiency} is a function of WFPC2’s time in orbit, the integrated signal in the image, the location of the image on the CCD, and the background signal. Routine monitoring of WFPC2’s degrading CTE over the last 13 years has primarily concerned the effects of CTI on point-source photometry. However, most of the sources imaged by WFPC2 are extended rather than point-like. This program aims to characterize the effects of CTI on the photometry and morphology of extended sources near the end of WFPC2’s functional life. Images of a standard field within the rich galaxy cluster Abell 1689 are recorded with each WFPC2 camera using the F606W and F814W filters. These images will be compared with contemporaneous images of Abell 1689 recorded with the field rotated by approximately 180 degrees to assess differences between extended sources imaged near and far from the serial register. The images will also be compared with similar images recorded in Cycle 8 {Program 8456} to characterize the rate of CTE degradation over the lifetime of WFPC2.
WFPC2 11070
WFPC2 CYCLE 15 Standard Darks – part II
This dark calibration program obtains dark frames every week in order to provide data for the ongoing calibration of the CCD dark current rate, and to monitor and characterize the evolution of hot pixels. Over an extended period these data will also provide a monitor of radiation damage to the CCDs.
WFPC2 11103
A Snapshot Survey of The Most Massive Clusters of Galaxies
We propose the continuation of our highly successful SNAPshot survey of a sample of 125 very X-ray luminous clusters in the redshift range 0.3-0.7. As demonstrated by the 25 snapshots obtained so far in Cycle14 and Cycle15 these systems frequently exhibit strong gravitational lensing as well as spectacular examples of violent galaxy interactions. The proposed observations will provide important constraints on the cluster mass distributions, the physical nature of galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-gas interactions in cluster cores, and a set of optically bright, lensed galaxies for further 8-10m spectroscopy. All of our primary science goals require only the detection and characterization of high-surface-brightness features and are thus achievable even at the reduced sensitivity of WFPC2. Because of their high redshift and thus compact angular scale our target clusters are less adversely affected by the smaller field of view of WFPC2 than more nearby systems. Acknowledging the broad community interest in this sample we waive our data rights for these observations. Due to a clerical error at STScI our approved Cycle15 SNAP program was barred from execution for 3 months and only 6 observations have been performed to date – reinstating this SNAP at Cycle16 priority is of paramount importance to reach meaningful statistics.
WFPC2 11134
WFPC2 Tidal Tail Survey: Probing Star Cluster Formation on the Edge
The spectacular HST images of the interiors of merging galaxies such as the Antennae and NGC 7252 have revealed rich and diverse populations of star clusters created over the course of the interaction. Intriguingly, our WFPC2 study of tidal tails in these and other interacting pairs has shown that star cluster birth in the tails does not follow a similarly straightforward evolution. In fact, cluster formation in these relatively sparse environments is not guaranteed — only one of six tails in our initial study showed evidence for a significant population of young star clusters. The tail environment thus offers the opportunity to probe star cluster formation on the edge of the physical parameter space {e.g., of stellar and gas mass, density, and pressure} that permits it to occur. We propose to significantly extend our pilot sample of optically bright, gas-rich tidal tails by a factor of 4 in number to include a more diverse population of tails, encompassing major and minor mergers, gas-rich and gas-poor tails, as well as early, late, and merged interaction stages. With 21 orbits of HST WFPC2 imaging in the F606W and F814W filters, we can identify, roughly age-date, and measure sizes of star clusters to determine what physical parameters affect star cluster formation. WFPC2 imaging has been used effectively in our initial study of four mergers, and it will be possible in this program to reach similar limits of Mv=-8.5 for each of 16 more tails. With the much larger sample we expect to isolate which factors, such as merger stage, HI content, and merger mass ratio, drive the formation of star clusters.
WFPC2 11361
Hubble Heritage Observations of Mars at 2007 Opposition
We will obtain images of Mars at opposition in December 2007.
FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:
Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be investigated.)
HSTARS:
11086 – GSaq(2,3,3) failed to RGA hold At AOS 338/04:32:30 flags indicated that during LOS GSacq(2,3,3) scheduled at 338/04:00:52 failed to RGA hold due to receiving stop flag QF2STOPF on FGS 2.
COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)
COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)
SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL FGS GSacq 08 07 FGS REacq 06 06 OBAD with Maneuver 28 28
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)
