NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #5051

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE DAILY REPORT #5051

Continuing to Collect World Class Science

PERIOD COVERED: 5am March 11 – 5am March 12, 2010 (DOY 070/10:00z-071/10:00z)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

WFC3/UV 12077

Monitoring the Aftermath of an Asteroid Impact Event

Our Director’s Discretionary program (GO-12053) to image the newly discovered object P/2010 A2 executed successfully on 2010 Jan 25 and 29 with spectacular results. Hubble has apparently borne witness to the first detection of a collision in the asteroid belt. Hubble imaging with the WFC3 has revealed an object unlike anything ever seen before and with details impossible to detect with any other facility. We request 6 more orbits of Hubble time (1 orbit every 20 days over the next few months, until the object enters Hubble’s solar exclusion zone in late-June 2010) to monitor the evolution of this remarkable object and further clarify the nature of this event. These observations may usher in a new era of searching for and characterizing collisional events within the asteroid belt.

ACS/WFC/WFC3/UV 11633

A Precision White Dwarf Cooling Age for NGC 6397

We propose to obtain second epoch imaging of the globular cluster NGC 6397, which has the deepest ACS/WFC dataset (126 orbits in Cycle 13) ever obtained in a globular cluster. These additional 14 orbits would enable the construction of a proper motion – cleaned white dwarf cooling sequence reaching fainter than the observed truncation point of the white dwarf luminosity function; a byproduct will be absolute proper motions (relative to the extragalactic reference frame) of the rich spheroid field population. Our data shows the long sought “blue hook”, a feature in the WD cooling sequence predicted in theoretical white dwarf models; the improved photometry and statistics afforded by the second epoch observations are needed to confirm the blue hook and to test other aspects of white dwarf cooling models that contribute to a 0.5 Gyr or greater uncertainty in the age. The proposed observations will provide formal constraints on the age and formation timescale of NGC 6397 that will be smaller than 1 Gyr and place the cluster’s formation epoch relative to the end of reionization. The final proper motion-purified white dwarf sequence will be a powerful constraint for white dwarf cooling models and atmospheres, the basis for white dwarf-based globular cluster age determinations, and also constrain the fraction of binary white dwarfs.

COS/NUV/FUV 11555

Transition Region and Chromospheric Activity on Low Metallicity Arcturus Moving Group `Alien’ Dwarfs

How does low metallicity affect the heating and resultant temperature structure of the chromospheres, transition regions, and coronae of old solar-like dwarf stars?

The Arcturus Moving Group is very likely a remnant of the merger of a dwarf galaxy with the Milky Way Galaxy in the distant (~ 7- 8 Gyr) past. This kinematically distinct group has members that are located very close to the Sun, allowing study of stellar activity on very old, low metallicity stars that typically would not be possible. We propose to obtain COS G140L spectra of four dwarf star members of the Arcturus Moving Group to measure the fluxes of their transition region and upper chromospheric emission lines and to investigate the effects of low metallicity on the outer atmospheric radiative losses and temperature structure. Our targets have metallicities of ~ 20% solar or less, spectral types F9 – M4, and are at distances less than 25 pc from the Sun. COS is the only UV spectrograph that is capable of registering the FUV spectra of these stars in a reasonable number of HST orbits.

S/C 11639

Catching Accreting WDs Moving into Their Instability Strip(s)

Our past HST studies of the temperatures of 9 accreting, pulsating white dwarfs in cataclysmic variables show that 3 are in the normal instability strip for single white dwarfs, but the other 6 are much hotter (15, 000-16, 500K). This dual strip has been proposed to be due to mass differences in the white dwarfs related to evolutionary history and driven by the ionization of different elements in their respective driving regions. In 2007, GW Lib (the brightest and best studied of the 6 hot accreting pulsators) and V455 And (the brightest and best studied of the 3 cool accreting pulsators) underwent rare large amplitude dwarf nova outbursts (known to heat the white dwarf) and their pulsations disappeared. We propose COS observations to: a) take advantage of the unprecedented opportunity to view the change in pulsation modes due to cooling of the white dwarf envelope and b) determine the masses of the white dwarfs to test the dual strip theory. In addition, a nova that had its outburst 22 yrs ago has begun non-radial pulsations as it returns to quiescence. We will use COS to determine its temperature in relation to the instability strip for the pulsating white dwarfs in dwarf novae.

STIS/CC 11845

CCD Dark Monitor Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.

STIS/CC 11847

CCD Bias Monitor-Part 2

Monitor the bias in the 1×1, 1×2, 2×1, and 2×2 bin settings at gain=1, and 1×1 at gain = 4, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the evolution of hot columns.

STIS/MA1/MA2 11857

STIS Cycle 17 MAMA Dark Monitor

This proposal monitors the behavior of the dark current in each of the MAMA detectors.

The basic monitor takes two 1380s ACCUM darks each week with each detector. However, starting Oct 5, pairs are only included for weeks that the LRP has external MAMA observations planned. The weekly pairs of exposures for each detector are linked so that they are taken at opposite ends of the same SAA free interval. This pairing of exposures will make it easier to separate long and short term temporal variability from temperature dependent changes.

For both detectors, additional blocks of exposures are taken once every six months. These are groups of five 1314s FUV-MAMA Time-Tag darks or five 3x315s NUV ACCUM darks distributed over a single SAA-free interval. This will give more information on the brightness of the FUV MAMA dark current as a function of the amount of time that the HV has been on, and for the NUV MAMA will give a better measure of the short term temperature dependence.

WFC3/IR 11931

IR Signal Non-Linearity Calibration

These observations will be used to quantify the non-linear signal behavior of the IR channel, as well as to create the IR channel non-linearity calibration reference file. The non-linearity behavior of each pixel in the detector will be investigated through the use of flat fields, while the photometric behavior of point sources will be studied using observations of 47 Tuc.

WFC3/UV/IR 11664

The WFC3 Galactic Bulge Treasury Program: Populations, Formation History, and Planets

Exploiting the full power of the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), we propose deep panchromatic imaging of four fields in the Galactic bulge. These data will enable a sensitive dissection of its stellar populations, using a new set of reddening-free photometric indices we have constructed from broad-band filters across UV, optical, and near-IR wavelengths. These indices will provide accurate temperatures and metallicities for hundreds of thousands of individual bulge stars. Proper motions of these stars derived from multi-epoch observations will allow separation of pure bulge samples from foreground disk contamination. Our catalogs of proper motions and panchromatic photometry will support a wide range of bulge studies.

Using these photometric and astrometric tools, we will reconstruct the detailed star-formation history as a function of position within the bulge, and thus differentiate between rapid- and extended-formation scenarios. We will also measure the dependence of the stellar mass function on metallicity, revealing how the characteristic mass of star formation varies with chemistry. Our sample of bulge stars with accurate metallicities will include 12 candidate hosts of extrasolar planets. Planet frequency is correlated with metallicity in the solar neighborhood; our measurements will extend this knowledge to a remote environment with a very distinct chemistry.

Our proposal also includes observations of six well-studied globular and open star clusters; these observations will serve to calibrate our photometric indices, provide empirical population templates, and transform the theoretical isochrone libraries into the WFC3 filter system. Besides enabling our own program, these products will provide powerful new tools for a host of other stellar-population investigations with HST/WFC3. We will deliver all of the products from this Treasury Program to the community in a timely fashion.

WFC3/UVIS 11905

WFC3 UVIS CCD Daily Monitor

The behavior of the WFC3 UVIS CCD will be monitored daily with a set of full-frame, four-amp bias and dark frames. A smaller set of 2Kx4K subarray biases are acquired at less frequent intervals throughout the cycle to support subarray science observations. The internals from this proposal, along with those from the anneal procedure (Proposal 11909), will be used to generate the necessary superbias and superdark reference files for the calibration pipeline (CDBS).

WFC3/UVIS 11908

Cycle 17: UVIS Bowtie Monitor

Ground testing revealed an intermittent hysteresis type effect in the UVIS detector (both CCDs) at the level of ~1%, lasting hours to days. Initially found via an unexpected bowtie-shaped feature in flatfield ratios, subsequent lab tests on similar e2v devices have since shown that it is also present as simply an overall offset across the entire CCD, i.e., a QE offset without any discernable pattern. These lab tests have further revealed that overexposing the detector to count levels several times full well fills the traps and effectively neutralizes the bowtie. Each visit in this proposal acquires a set of three 3×3 binned internal flatfields: the first unsaturated image will be used to detect any bowtie, the second, highly exposed image will neutralize the bowtie if it is present, and the final image will allow for verification that the bowtie is gone.

WFC3/UVIS 11912

UVIS Internal Flats

This proposal will be used to assess the stability of the flat field structure for the UVIS detector throughout the 15 months of Cycle 17. The data will be used to generate on-orbit updates for the delta-flat field reference files used in the WFC3 calibration pipeline, if significant changes in the flat structure are seen.

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:

18824-0 – Genslew for proposal 12077 (slot # 9) @ 070/2210z

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

                       SCHEDULED  SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSAcq               6               6

FGS REAcq              10              10

OBAD with Maneuver      4               4

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)