HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to Collect World Class Science



DAILY REPORT #5146



PERIOD COVERED: 5am July 26 - 5am July 27, 2010 (DOY 207/09:00z-208/09:00z)



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 9 9

OBAD with Maneuver 5 5



SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)







OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED:



ACS/WFC 11996



CCD Daily Monitor (Part 3)



This program comprises basic tests for measuring the read noise and dark

current of the ACS WFC and for tracking the growth of hot pixels. The

recorded frames are used to create bias and dark reference images for

science data reduction and calibration. This program will be executed

four days per week (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) for the duration of Cycle 17. To

facilitate scheduling, this program is split into three proposals. This

proposal covers 308 orbits (19.25 weeks) from 21 June 2010 to 1 November

2010.



COS/FUV 11895



FUV Detector Dark Monitor



Monitor the FUV detector dark rate by taking long science exposures

without illuminating the detector. The detector dark rate and spatial

distribution of counts will be compared to pre-launch and SMOV data in

order to verify the nominal operation of the detector. Variations of

count rate as a function of orbital position will be analyzed to find

dependence of dark rate on proximity to the SAA. Dependence of dark rate

as function of time will also be tracked.



COS/FUV/STIS/CCD/MA1 11592



Testing the Origin(s) of the Highly Ionized High-Velocity Clouds: A

Survey of Galactic Halo Stars at z>3 kpc



Cosmological simulation predicts that highly ionized gas plays an

important role in the formation and evolution of galaxies and their

interplay with the intergalactic medium. The NASA HST and FUSE missions

have revealed high-velocity CIV and OVI absorption along extragalactic

sightlines through the Galactic halo. These highly ionized high-velocity

clouds (HVCs) could cover 85% of the sky and have a detection rate

higher than the HI HVCs. Two competing, equally exciting, theories may

explain the origin of these highly ionized HVCs: 1) the "Galactic"

theory, where the HVCs are the result of feedback processes and trace

the disk-halo mass exchange, perhaps including the accretion of matter

condensing from an extended corona; 2) the "Local Group" theory, where

they are part of the local warm-hot intergalactic medium, representing

some of the missing baryonic matter of the Universe. Only direct

distance determinations can discriminate between these models. Our group

has found that some of these highly ionized HVCs have a Galactic origin,

based on STIS observations of one star at z<5.3 kpc. We propose an HST

FUV spectral survey to search for and characterize the high velocity NV,

CIV, and SiIV interstellar absorption toward 24 stars at much larger

distances than any previous searches (4<d<21 kpc, 3<|z|<13 kpc). COS

will provide atomic to highly ionized species (e.g.,OI, CII, CIV, SiIV)

that can be observed at sufficient resolution (R~22, 000) to not only

detect these highly ionized HVCs but also to model their properties and

understand their physics and origins. This survey is only possible

because of the high sensitivity of COS in the FUV spectral range.



COS/NUV 11894



NUV Detector Dark Monitor



The purpose of this proposal is to measure the NUV detector dark rate by

taking long science exposures with no light on the detector. The

detector dark rate and spatial distribution of counts will be compared

to pre-launch and SMOV data in order to verify the nominal operation of

the detector. Variations of count rate as a function of orbital position

will be analyzed to find dependence of dark rate on proximity to the

SAA. Dependence of dark rate as function of time will also be tracked.



COS/NUV 11896



NUV Spectroscopic Sensitivity Monitoring



The purpose of this proposal is to monitor sensitivity of each NUV

grating mode to detect any changes due to contamination or other causes.



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 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 bin settings at gain=1,

and 1x1 at gain = 4, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the

evolution of hot columns.



STIS/CCD 11721



Verifying the Utility of Type Ia Supernovae as Cosmological Probes:

Evolution and Dispersion in the Ultraviolet Spectra



The study of distant type Ia supernova (SNe Ia) offers the most

practical and immediate discriminator between popular models of dark

energy. Yet fundamental questions remain over possible

redshift-dependent trends in their observed and intrinsic properties.

High-quality Keck spectroscopy of a representative sample of 36

intermediate redshift SNe Ia has revealed a surprising, and unexplained,

diversity in their rest-frame UV fluxes. One possible explanation is

hitherto undiscovered variations in the progenitor metallicity.

Unfortunately, this result cannot be compared to local UV data as only

two representative SNe Ia have been studied near maximum light. Taking

advantage of two new `rolling searches' and the restoration of STIS, we

propose a non-disruptive TOO campaign to create an equivalent comparison

local sample. This will allow us to address possible evolution in the

mean UV spectrum and its diversity, an essential precursor to the study

of SNe beyond z~1.



STIS/CCD 11852



STIS CCD Spectroscopic Flats C17



The purpose of this proposal is to obtain pixel-to-pixel lamp flat

fields for the STIS CCD in spectroscopic mode.



WFC3/UV/ACS/WFC/IR 12055



A Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury - I



We propose to image the north east quadrant of M31 to deep limits in the

UV, optical, and near-IR. HST imaging should resolve the galaxy into

more than 100 million stars, all with common distances and foreground

extinctions. UV through NIR stellar photometry (F275W, F336W with

WFC3/UVIS, F475W and F814W with ACS/WFC, and F110W and F160W with

WFC3/NIR) will provide effective temperatures for a wide range of

spectral types, while simultaneously mapping M31's extinction. Our

central science drivers are to: understand high-mass variations in the

stellar IMF as a function of SFR intensity and metallicity; capture the

spatially-resolved star formation history of M31; study a vast sample of

stellar clusters with a range of ages and metallicities. These are

central to understanding stellar evolution and clustered star formation;

constraining ISM energetics; and understanding the counterparts and

environments of transient objects (novae, SNe, variable stars, x-ray

sources, etc.). As its legacy, this survey adds M31 to the Milky Way and

Magellanic Clouds as a fundamental calibrator of stellar evolution and

star-formation processes for understanding the stellar populations of

distant galaxies. Effective exposure times are 977s in F275W, 1368s in

F336W, 4040s in F475W, 4042s in F814W, 699s in F110W, and 1796s in

F160W, including short exposures to avoid saturation of bright sources.

These depths will produce photon-limited images in the UV. Images will

be crowding-limited in the optical and NIR, but will reach below the red

clump at all radii. The images will reach the Nyquist sampling limit in

F160W, F475W, and F814W.



WFC3/UVIS 11707



Detecting Isolated Black Holes through Astrometric Microlensing



This proposal aims to make the first detection of isolated stellar-mass

black holes (BHs) in the Milky Way, and to determine their masses. Until

now, the only directly measured BH masses have come from radial-velocity

measurements of X-ray binaries. Our proposed method uses the astrometric

shifts that occur when a galactic-bulge microlensing event is caused by

a BH lens. Out of the hundreds of bulge microlensing events found

annually by the OGLE and MOA surveys, a few are found to have very long

durations (>200 days). It is generally believed that the majority of

these long-duration events are caused by lenses that are isolated BHs.



To test this hypothesis, we will carry out high-precision astrometry of

5 long-duration events, using the ACS/HRC camera. The expected

astrometric signal from a BH lens is >1.4 mas, at least 7 times the

demonstrated astrometric precision attainable with the HRC.



This proposal will thus potentially lead to the first unambiguous

detection of isolated stellar-mass BHs, and the first direct mass

measurement for isolated stellar-mass BHs through any technique.

Detection of several BHs will provide information on the frequency of

BHs in the galaxy, with implications for the slope of the IMF at high

masses, the minimum mass of progenitors that produce BHs, and

constraints on theoretical models of BH formation.



WFC3/UVIS 11903



UVIS Photometric Zero Points



This proposal obtains the photometric zero points in 53 of the 62

UVIS/WFC3 filters: the 18 broad-band filters, 8 medium-band filters, 16

narrow-band filters, and 11 of the 20 quad filters (those being used in

cycle 17). The observations will be primary obtained by observing the

hot DA white dwarf standards GD153 and G191-B2B. A redder secondary

standard, P330E, will be observed in a subset of the filters to provide

color corrections. Repeat observations in 16 of the most widely used

cycle 17 filters will be obtained once per month for the first three

months, and then once every second month for the duration of cycle 17,

alternating and depending on target availability. These observations

will enable monitoring of the stability of the photometric system.

Photometric transformation equations will be calculated by comparing the

photometry of stars in two globular clusters, 47 Tuc and NGC 2419, to

previous measurements with other telescopes/instruments.



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).