NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #5174

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE DAILY REPORT #5174

Continuing to Collect World Class Science

PERIOD COVERED: 5am September 2 – 5am September 3, 2010 (DOY 245/09:00z-246/09:00z)

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               8                8

FGS REAcq               8                8

OBAD with Maneuver      6                6

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED:

ACS/WFC3 11599

Distances of Planetary Nebulae from SNAPshots of Resolved Companions

Reliable distances to individual planetary nebulae (PNe) in the Milky Way are needed to advance our understanding of their spatial distribution, birthrates, influence on galactic chemistry, and the luminosities and evolutionary states of their central stars (CSPN). Few PNe have good distances, however. One of the best ways to remedy this problem is to find resolved physical companions to the CSPN and measure their distances by photometric main- sequence fitting. We have previously used HST to identify and measure probable companions to 10 CSPN, based on angular separations and statistical arguments only. We now propose to use HST to re-observe 48 PNe from that program for which additional companions are possibly present. We then can use the added criterion of common proper motion to confirm our original candidate companions and identify new ones in cases that could not confidently be studied before. We will image the region around each CSPN in the V and I bands, and in some cases in the B band. Field stars that appear close to the CSPN by chance will be revealed by their relative proper motion during the 13+ years since our original survey, leaving only genuine physical companions in our improved and enlarged sample. This study will increase the number of Galactic PNe with reliable distances by 50 percent and improve the distances to PNe with previously known companions.

STIS/CCD 11845

CCD Dark Monitor Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.

STIS/CCD 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/CCD/MA/WFC3/UV 11665

The Formation Mechanisms of Extreme Horizontal Branch Stars

Blue hook stars are a class of hot (~35, 000 K) subluminous extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars that have been recently discovered using HST ultraviolet images of the massive globular clusters omega Cen and NGC 2808. These stars occupy a region of the HR diagram that is unexplained by canonical stellar evolution theory. Using new theoretical evolutionary and atmospheric models, we have shown that the blue hook stars are very likely the progeny of stars that undergo extensive internal mixing during a late helium core flash on the white dwarf cooling curve. This “flash mixing” produces an enormous enhancement of the surface helium and carbon abundances (relative to the abundance pattern that existed on the main sequence), which suppresses the observed flux in the far-UV. Because stars born with a high helium abundance are more likely to evolve into hot horizontal branch stars, flash mixing is more likely to occur in those massive clusters capable of helium self-enrichment. However, a high initial helium abundance, by itself, is not sufficient to explain the presence of a blue hook population – flash mixing of the envelope is also required.

We propose far-UV spectroscopy of normal and subluminous EHB stars in NGC 2808 that will unambiguously test this new formation mechanism. These observations will easily detect the helium and carbon enhancements predicted by flash mixing and will therefore determine if flash mixing represents a new evolutionary channel for populating the hot end of the EHB. More generally, our observations will help to clarify the role of helium self-enrichment in producing blue horizontal branch morphologies and multiple main sequences in massive globular clusters. Finally, these results will provide new insight into the origin and abundance anomalies of the hot helium-rich subdwarf B and O stars in the Galactic field.

WFC3/ACS/IR 11563

Galaxies at z~7-10 in the Reionization Epoch: Luminosity Functions to <0.2L* from Deep IR Imaging of the HUDF and HUDF05 Fields The first generations of galaxies were assembled around redshifts z~7-10+, just 500-800 Myr after recombination, in the heart of the reionization of the universe. We know very little about galaxies in this period. Despite great effort with HST and other telescopes, less than ~15 galaxies have been reliably detected so far at z>7, contrasting with the ~1000 galaxies detected to date at z~6, just 200-400 Myr later, near the end of the reionization epoch. WFC3 IR can dramatically change this situation, enabling derivation of the galaxy luminosity function and its shape at z~7-8 to well below L*, measurement of the UV luminosity density at z~7-8 and z~8-9, and estimates of the contribution of galaxies to reionization at these epochs, as well as characterization of their properties (sizes, structure, colors). A quantitative leap in our understanding of early galaxies, and the timescales of their buildup, requires a total sample of ~100 galaxies at z~7-8 to ~29 AB mag. We can achieve this with 192 WFC3 IR orbits on three disjoint fields (minimizing cosmic variance): the HUDF and the two nearby deep fields of the HUDF05. Our program uses three WFC3 IR filters, and leverages over 600 orbits of existing ACS data, to identify, with low contamination, a large sample of over 100 objects at z~7-8, a very useful sample of ~23 at z~8-9, and limits at z~10. By careful placement of the WFC3 IR and parallel ACS pointings, we also enhance the optical ACS imaging on the HUDF and a HUDF05 field. We stress (1) the need to go deep, which is paramount to define L*, the shape, and the slope alpha of the luminosity function (LF) at these high redshifts; and (2) the far superior performance of our strategy, compared with the use of strong lensing clusters, in detecting significant samples of faint z~7-8 galaxies to derive their luminosity function and UV ionizing flux. Our recent z~7.4 NICMOS results show that wide-area IR surveys, even of GOODS-like depth, simply do not reach faint enough at z~7-9 to meet the LF and UV flux objectives. In the spirit of the HDF and the HUDF, we will waive any proprietary period, and will also deliver the reduced data to STScI. The proposed data will provide a Legacy resource of great value for a wide range of archival science investigations of galaxies at redshifts z~2- 9. The data are likely to remain the deepest IR/optical images until JWST is launched, and will provide sources for spectroscopic follow up by JWST, ALMA and EVLA.

WFC3/ACS/IR 11840

Identifying the Host Galaxies for Optically Dark Gamma-Ray Bursts

We propose to use the high spatial resolution of Chandra to obtain precise positions for a sample of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with no optical afterglows, where the optical light is suppressed relative to the X-ray flux. These bursts are likely to be highly obscured and may have different environments from the optically bright GRBs. Our Chandra observations will (unlike Swift XRT positions) allow for the unique identification of a host galaxy. To locate these host galaxies we will follow up our Chandra positions with deep optical and IR observations with HST. The ultimate aim is to understand any differences between the host galaxies of optically dark and bright GRBs, and how these affect the use of GRBs as tracers of starformation and galaxy evolution at high redshift.

WFC3/ACS/UVIS 11877

HST Cycle 17 and Post-SM4 Optical Monitor

This program is the Cycle 17 implementation of the HST Optical Monitoring Program.

The 36 orbits comprising this proposal will utilize ACS (Wide Field Channel) and WFC3 (UVIS Channel) to observe stellar cluster members in parallel with multiple exposures over an orbit. Phase retrieval performed on the PSF in each image will be used to measure primarily focus, with the ability to explore apparent coma, and astigmatism changes in WFC3.

The goals of this program are to: 1) monitor the overall OTA focal length for the purposes of maintaining focus within science tolerances 2) gain experience with the relative effectiveness of phase retrieval on WFC3/UVIS PSFs 3) determine focus offset between the imagers and identify any SI-specific focus behavior and dependencies

If need is determined, future visits will be modified to interleave WFC3/IR channel and STIS/CCD focii measurements.

WFC3/IR 11678

Resolved H alpha star formation in two lensed galaxies at z=0.9

We will obtain H alpha narrow-band images of two galaxies at z=0.912 that have been gravitationally lensed by the galaxy cluster Abell 2390. H alpha falls squarely into the F126N filter, and both galaxies fit in a single WFC3 field of view. Because these two galaxies are magnified by factors of 6.7 (+-0.4) and 12.6 (+-0.8), WFC3 IR pixels probe spatial scales of 150 and 80 pc. (Without lensing, the WFC3 pixels probe 1 kpc scales at these redshifts.) Thus, these two galaxies provide a rare chance to examine, in detail and at high S/N, the spatial distribution of star formation in average galaxies at z=1.

After lensing deprojection, we will study the spatial distribution of star formation, the star-forming disk properties and nuclear contribution, as well as the distribution of extinction (from the archival F55W to H-alpha ratio map). We will also compare integrated extinction–corrected H alpha to Spitzer-derived diagnostics of star formation rate.

WFC3/UV 12296

HST Observations of Astrophysically Important Visual Binaries

We propose to continue three long-term programs. All three consist of astrometry of close visual binaries, with the primary goal of determining dynamical masses for 3 important main-sequence stars and 6 white dwarfs (WDs). A secondary aim is to set limits on third bodies in the systems down to planetary mass. Since all 3 programs needed to be proposed for Cycle 18 continuation, we are simplifying the review process by combining them into a single proposal. Three of our 5 targets are naked-eye stars with much fainter companions that are very difficult to image from the ground. Our other 2 targets are double WDs, whose small separations and faintness likewise make them difficult to measure using ground-based techniques.

The bright stars, to be imaged with WFC3, are: (1) Procyon (P = 40.9 yr), for which our first HST images yielded an accurate angular separation of the bright F star and its much fainter WD companion. Combined with ground-based astrometry of the bright star, our observation significantly revised downward the derived masses, and brought Procyon A into much better agreement with theoretical evolutionary masses. With the continued monitoring proposed here, we will obtain masses to an accuracy of better than 1%, providing a testbed for theories of both Sun-like stars and WDs. (2) Sirius (P = 50.1 yr), an A-type star also having a faint WD companion, Sirius B, the nearest and brightest of all WDs. (3) Mu Cas (P = 21.0 yr), a nearby metal-deficient G dwarf for which accurate masses will lead to the stars’ helium contents, with cosmological implications.

The faint double WDs, to be observed with FGS, are: (1) G 107-70 (P = 18.8 yr), and (2) WD 1818+126 (P = 12.7 yr). Our astrometry of these systems will add 4 accurate masses to the handful of WD masses that are directly known from dynamical measurements. The FGS measurements will also provide precise parallaxes for the systems, a necessary ingredient in the mass determinations.

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 11914

UVIS Earth Flats

This program is an experimental path finder for Cycle 18 calibration. Visible-wavelength flat fields will be obtained by observing the dark side of the Earth during periods of full moon illumination. The observations will consist of full-frame streaked WFC3 UVIS imagery: per 22- min total exposure time in a single “dark-sky” orbit, we anticipate collecting 7000 e/pix in F606W or 4500 e/pix in F814W. To achieve Poisson S/N > 100 per pixel, we require at least 2 orbits of F606W and 3 orbits of F814W.

For UVIS narrowband filters, exposures of 1 sec typically do not saturate on the sunlit Earth, so we will take sunlit Earth flats for three of the more-commonly used narrowband filters in Cycle 17 plus the also-popular long-wavelength quad filters, for which we get four filters at once.

Why not use the Sunlit Earth for the wideband visible-light filters? It is too bright in the visible for WFC3 UVIS minimum exposure time of 0.5 sec. Similarly, for NICMOS the sunlit-Earth is too bright which saturates the detector too quickly and/or induces abnormal behaviors such as super-shading (Gilmore 1998, NIC 098-011). In the narrowband visible and broadband near- UV its not too bright (predictions in Cox et al. 1987 “Standard Astronomical Sources for HST: 6. Spatially Flat Fields.” and observations in ACS Program 10050).

Other possibilities? Cox et al.’s Section II.D addresses many other possible sources for flat fields, rejecting them for a variety of reasons. A remaining possibility would be the totally eclipsed moon. Such eclipses provide approximately 2 hours (1 HST orbit) of opportunity per year, so they are too rare to be generically useful. An advantage of the moon over the Earth is that the moon subtends less than 0.25 square degree, whereas the Earth subtends a steradian or more, so scattered light and light potentially leaking around the shutter presents additional problems for the Earth. Also, we’re unsure if HST can point 180 deg from the Sun.

WFC3/UVIS 11924

WFC3/UVIS External and Internal CTE Monitor

CCD detector Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI)-induced losses in photometry and astrometry will be measured using observations of the rich open cluster NGC6791 and with the EPER (Extended Pixel Edge Response) method using tungsten lamp flat field exposures. Although we do not expect to see CTE effects at the outset of Cycle 17, this CTE monitoring program is the first of a multi-cycle program to monitor and establish CTE-induced losses with time. We expect to measure CTE effects with a precision comparable to the ACS measurements.