NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report: # 4501
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE DAILY REPORT # 4501
– Continuing to collect World Class Science
PERIOD COVERED: UT December 6, 2007 (DOY 340)
OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED
FGS 11211
An Astrometric Calibration of Population II Distance Indicators In 2002 HST produced a highly precise parallax for RR Lyrae. That measurement resulted in an absolute magnitude, M{V}= 0.61+/-0.11, a useful result, judged by the over ten refereed citations each year since. It is, however, unsatisfactory to have the direct, parallax-based, distance scale of Population II variables based on a single star. We propose, therefore, to obtain the parallaxes of four additional RR Lyrae stars and two Population II Cepheids, or W Vir stars. The Population II Cepheids lie with the RR Lyrae stars on a common K-band Period-Luminosity relation. Using these parallaxes to inform that relationship, we anticipate a zero-point error of 0.04 magnitude. This result should greatly strengthen confidence in the Population II distance scale and increase our understanding of RR Lyrae star and Pop II Cepheid astrophysics.
WFPC2 11002
A Census of LIRGs in Clusters of Galaxies in the First Half of the Universe from the IRAC Shallow Survey
The incidence of LIRGs and ULIRGs is roughly two orders of magnitude higher in the field at redshift z > 1, and at these redshifts such objects dominate the global star formation activity. Mergers which fuel such activity might be expected to enhance the frequency of LIRGs in dense environments. We propose to use MIPS to obtain a census of LIRGs in z > 1 galaxy clusters from a well defined sample found in the IRAC Shallow Survey. Supporting IRAC and HST ACS data are also requested.
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 11169
Collisions in the Kuiper belt
For most of the 15 year history of observations of Kuiper belt objects, it has been speculated that impacts must have played a major role in shaping the physical and chemical characteristics of these objects, yet little direct evidence of the effects of such impacts has been seen. The past 18 months, however, have seen an explosion of major new discoveries giving some of the first insights into the influence of this critical process. From a diversity of observations we have been led to the hypotheses that: {1} satellite- forming impacts must have been common in the Kuiper belt; {2} such impacts led to significant chemical modification; and {3} the outcomes of these impacts are sufficiently predictable that we can now find and study these impact-derived systems by the chemical and physical attributes of both the satellites and the primaries. If our picture is correct, we now have in hand for the first time a set of incredibly powerful tools to study the frequency and outcome of collisions in the outer solar system. Here we propose three linked projects that would answer questions critical to the multiple prongs of our hypothesis. In these projects we will study the chemical effects of collisions through spectrophotometric observations of collisionally formed satellites and through the search for additional satellites around primaries with potential impact signatures, and we will study the physical effects of impacts through the examination of tidal evolution in proposed impact systems. The intensive HST program that we propose here will allow us to fully test our new hypotheses and will provide the ability to obtain the first extensive insights into outer solar system impact processes.
WFPC2 11178
Probing Solar System History with Orbits, Masses, and Colors of Transneptunian Binaries
The recent discovery of numerous transneptunian binaries {TNBs} opens a window into dynamical conditions in the protoplanetary disk where they formed as well as the history of subsequent events which sculpted the outer Solar System and emplaced them onto their present day heliocentric orbits. To date, at least 47 TNBs have been discovered, but only about a dozen have had their mutual orbits and separate colors determined, frustrating their use to investigate numerous important scientific questions. The current shortage of data especially cripples scientific investigations requiring statistical comparisons among the ensemble characteristics. We propose to obtain sufficient astrometry and photometry of 23 TNBs to compute their mutual orbits and system masses and to determine separate primary and secondary colors, roughly tripling the sample for which this information is known, as well as extending it to include systems of two near-equal size bodies. To make the most efficient possible use of HST, we will use a Monte Carlo technique to optimally schedule our observations.
WFPC2 11312
The Local Cluster Substructure Survey {LoCuSS}: Deep Strong Lensing Observations with WFPC2
LoCuSS is a systematic and detailed investigation of the mass, substructure, and thermodynamics of 100 X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at 0.15< z<0.3. The primary goal is to test our recent suggestion that this population is dominated by dynamically immature disturbed clusters, and that the observed mass-temperature relation suffers strong structural segregation. If confirmed, this would represent a paradigm shift in our observational understanding of clusters, that were hitherto believed to be dominated by mature, undisturbed systems. We propose to complete our successful Cycle 15 program {SNAP:10881} which prior to premature termination had delivered robust weak-lensing detections in 17 clusters, and candidate strongly-lensed arcs in 11 of these 17. These strong and weak lensing signals will give an accurate measure of the total mass and structure of the dark matter distribution that we will subsequently compare with X-ray and Sunyaev Zeldovich Effect observables. The broader applications of our project include 1} the calibration of mass-temperature and mass-SZE scaling relations which will be critical for the calibration of proposed dark energy experiments, and 2} the low redshift baseline study of the demographics of massive clusters to aid interpretation of future high redshift {z>1} cluster samples. To complete the all-important high resolution imaging component of our survey, we request deep WFPC2 observations of 20 clusters through the F606W filter, for which wide-field weak-lensing data are already available from our Subaru imaging program. The combination of deep WFPC2 and Subaru data for these 20 clusters will enable us to achieve the science program approved by the Cycle 15 TAC.
FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:
Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be investigated.)
HSTARS:
11087 – GSAcq(1,2,2) requires multiple attempts to achieve CT-DV OTA SE review of PTAS processing revealed that GSAcq(1,2,2) on day 333/04:07:32z required two attempts to achieve CT-DV on FGS1. The acquisition was successful.
11090 – REACQ(2,3,2) fine lock backup on FGS 2 REACQ(2,3,2) at 340/02:18:31 acquired in fine lock backup on FGS 2 only, with QF3STOPF and QSTOP flags set on FGS 3 at 02:22:50. No other flags were seen. Previous acquisitions at 339/21:31:59, 23:06:44 and 340/00:42:37 were successful
COMPLETED OPS REQUEST:
18160-1 – Null genslews for proposal 11226 – slots 1-12
COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)
SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL FGS GSacq 06 06 FGS REacq 08 08 OBAD with Maneuver 30 30
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)
