James A. Westphal

THE PERFORMANCE AND CALIBRATION OF WFPC2 ON THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

The WFPC2 was installed in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1993 December. Since then, the instrument has been providing high-quality images. A significant amount of calibration data has been collected to aid in the understanding of the on-orbit performance of the instrument. Generally, the behavior of the camera is similar to its performance during the system-level thermal vacuum test at JPL in 1993 May. Surprises were a significant charge-transfer-efficiency (CTE) problem and a significant growth rate in hot pixels at the original operating temperature of the CCDs (-76 °C). The operating temperature of the WFPC2 CCDs was changed to -88 °C on 1994 April 23, and significant improvements in CTE and hot pixels are seen at this temperature. In this paper we describe the on-orbit performance of the WFPC2. We discuss the optical and thermal history, the instrument throughput and stability, the PSF, the effects of undersampling on photometry, the properties of cosmic rays observed on-orbit, and the geometric distortion in the camera. We present the best techniques for the reduction of WFPC2 data, and describe the construction of calibration products including superbiases, superdarks, and fiat fields.

Planetary Camera observations of NGC 1275 - Discovery of a central population of compact massive blue star clusters

We have discovered a population of bright blue pointlike sources within 5 kpc of the nucleus of NGC 1275 using HST Planetary Camera observations. The typical object has M_v~- 12 to - 14 (H_0 = 75 km s^(-1) Mpc^(-1); the brightest has M_v~-16. They are all blue, with V- R≾0.3. The color distribution and lack of excess Ha emission are consistent with nearly all being continuum sources. Many of the sources are unresolved even with the HST and consequently have sizes of ≾ 15 pc. We suggest that these are young star clusters that will evolve to look like globular clusters. They are bluer than any clusters seen in the Milky Way or M87, and brighter than the blue clusters seen in the LMC. We derive ages of several hundred million years or less and corresponding masses of 10^5-10^8 M_☉. The existence of these young clusters may be connected with a current or previous interaction with another galaxy, with the cooling flow in NGC 1275, or with some combination. Structure is detected in the underlying galaxy light that is suggestive of a merge between NGC 1275 and a second galaxy some 10^8 yr ago. If this merger triggered star formation, it would naturally account for the observed uniformity of cluster colors. Steady-state star formation in the x-ray cooling flow would imply a wider range in cluster age and color than is seen, unless the clusters disrupt. An interaction with the projected high-velocity, infalling system cannot explain the observations because this system has not yet reached the center of NGC 1275 where the clusters are concentrated, and because it has a total interaction time that is far too short for either the observed cluster lifetimes or the dynamical lifetime of structure in the galaxy. If the presence of recently formed protoglobulars around NGC 1275 is related to a previous merger, this would remove an important objection to the merger hypothesis for elliptical galaxy origins, provided that adequate gas is available in the merger for their formation.

Far-Ultraviolet Imaging of Jupiter's Aurora and the Io “Footprint”

Far-ultraviolet images of Jupiter from the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 reveal polar auroral emissions at 300 kilometer resolution and three times higher sensitivity than previously achieved. Persistent features include a main oval containing most of the emission and magnetically connected to the middle magnetosphere, diffuse and variable emissions poleward of the main oval, and discrete emission from Ios magnetic footprint equatorward of the oval. The auroral emissions are variable, exhibit magnetic conjugacy, and are visible above the planet limb. All emissions approximately co-rotate with Jupiter except the Io “footprint,” which is fixed along Ios magnetic flux tube.

Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the SN 1987A Triple Ring Nebula

We have observed SN 1987A with the optically corrected WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope both in emission lines and in the UV and optical continuum. The previously observed outer nebular structure is shown to be part of two closed unresolved loops. These loops were flash-ionized by the supernova itself. They are not caused by limb brightening of an hourglass shell produced by the interaction of the winds from the progenitor. The inner ring is seen to be extended and may be connected to the new outer rings by sheets of material. However, beyond the outer rings, emission is not seen, implying a very low density (n 1000. This density contrast of at least 100 is difficult to reconcile with the conventional picture of the progenitor evolution. Two models for the rings are presented, but each is deficient in important respects. A proper understanding of this system will require new physical insight.

Saturn's E ring

Abstract The tenuous E ring of Saturn is found to commence abruptly at 3 Saturn radii, to peak sharply in the vicinity of the orbit of the satellite Enceladus (about 4 radii), and to spread out thinly to more than 8 radii. This distribution strongly suggests it to be associated with Enceladus and perhaps to be material ejected from Enceladus. The spread of E-ring material above and below the ring plane is greater in its tenuous outskirts than in its denser inner region, suggesting that the E ring may be at an early stage in its evolution. Thus far, our analysis reveals only a marginal variation of the ring with time or Enceladus azimuth. In this paper we describe the special instrumentation used for photometric observations of the E ring, and we present some of the data obtained in March 1980. In Paper II we shall derive the three-dimensional distribution of material in the E ring and discuss its cosmogonic implications.

The extension of the Hubble diagram. II - New redshifts and photometry of very distant galaxy clusters - First indication of a deviation of the Hubble diagram from a straight line

Redshifts are given for 50 brightest cluster galaxies, extending as far as z = 0.75; BVR photometry is given for 33 clusters. These data are combined with earlier data of a similar kind in order to investigate several effects. The measured B - V and V - R colors as a function of redshift are well represented by Whitfords standard-galaxy K corrections, as far as these are defined (to z = 0.28 in B - V and z = 0.48 in V - R). This suggests both that the K corrections are valid over these ranges of z and that no major color change of the galaxies has occurred over the last 4-5 x 10^9 years. At larger redshifts, the colors, which start out being monotonically redder with z, turn over and become bluer with z. The data at large z seem to follow the prediction based upon ultraviolet photometry of NGC 4486 (M87), which is one extreme of a range of galaxies measured by Code and Welch. Other standard corrections to the measurements are discussed, and formal least-squares values of q_0 are computed. To explore the possibility that one might be stalemated by the fact that the value of q_0 must, in principle, be known a priori to compute the aperture correction, the data are corrected separately for assumed q_0 values of 0 and + 1. The subsequently computed values of q_0 differ by only 0.2 between the two cases, which indicates that a simple iterative procedure will converge to produce a self-consistent value of q_0. The new data do not significantly change earlier discussions of the corrections for cluster richness and Bautz-Morgan contrast type. If these two corrections are not made, the effect on the present data is to significantly increase the positive curvature of the Hubble diagram, as well as the dispersion in apparent magnitude. To within the limits of the present data, the absolute magnitude of the brightest cluster galaxy does not, in general, depend on whether it is also a bright radio source. The present sample, cut off at z = 0.4 to avoid selection effects and uncertainties in the data, shows the first significant evidence for curvature of the Hubble diagram, with V and R magnitudes giving similar results. The formal value of q_0 (with galaxy evolution ignored) is + 1.6 ± 0.4. The dispersion in absolute magnitude is less than 0.3 mag, with M_v = -23.28 ± 0.03 and M_R= -24.09 ± 0.03. The use of the Hubble diagram in cosmology now depends on a knowledge of brightness changes in galaxies, on the one hand, or of q_0 from other evidence, on the other. For example, if it were known with certainty that there has been no significant change in elliptical galaxy luminosities during the last 4 x 10^9 years, then the present data are nearly good enough for one to say definitively that the universe is closed and finite, with a finite lifetime. At the other extreme, if it were known with certainty from other evidence that the universe was nearly empty (q_0 ≈ 0), then the present data set the constraint that net galaxy luminosities have decreased by ~ 0.5 mag during the last 5 x 10^9 years, with a net color change Δ(B - V) ≤ 0.1 mag. It seems possible at present to construct a self-consistent model with q_0 ≈ 0 that satisfies the known data, but the case is not yet settled.

Mars - Narrow-band photometry, from 0.3 to 2.5 microns, of surface regions during the 1969 apparition

Mars surface narrow-band spectrophotometric observation, obtaining spectral reflectivities for geometric albedos calculation

Detection of the Tip of Red Giant Branc in NGC 5128

We present a color-magnitude diagram of more than 10,000 stars in the halo of the galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A), based on WFPC2 images through V-band and I-band filters. The position of the red giant branch (RGB) stars is compared with the loci of the red giant branch in six well-studied globular clusters and in the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 185; the tip of the RGB is signalled by an observed turn-up in the luminosity function at I≃24.1 ± 0.1 mag; this yields a distance modulus (m - M)_0 = 27.8 ± 0.2 for NGC 5128 (i.e., a distance of 3.6 ± 0.2 Mpc), in agreement with previous determinations based on the planetary nebulae luminosity function and on the surface brightness fluctuations technique. The presence of an intermediate-age stellar population (~5 Gyr) is suggested by the luminosity function of the asymptotic giant branch stars, extending up to I= 22.6 mag (for V - I > 2) and M_(bot) ~ -5 mag; however, the number of these stars constrains the intermediate-age stellar population in the halo of NGC 5128 to be less than ~ 10% of the total. The color distribution at constant I magnitude, albeit affected by the completeness level of our sample, strongly suggests a mean value of [Fe/H] > -0.9 dex, possibly similar to the value found in M31 and higher than that observed in NGC 185. Like the M31 halo, the halo of NGC 5128 exhibits a broad range of levels of chemical enrichment.

The double quasar Q0957 + 561 A, B - A gravitational lens image formed by a galaxy at z = 0.39

We believed that we have observed the gravitational lens that is responsible for producing the double quasar. Extremely deep CCD pictures of the region show that the QSOs are behind a rich cluster of galaxies. The CCD data and spectrophotometry of the QSOs indicate that the southern QSO image is seen through the brightest cluster galaxy, whose redshift is 0.39.

Stellar populations in three outer fields of the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present Hubble Space Telescope photometry for three fields in the outer disk of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) extending approximately 4 mag below the faintest main-sequence turnoff. We cannot detect any strongly significant differences in the stellar populations of the three fields based on the morphologies of the color-magnitude diagrams, the luminosity functions, and the relative numbers of stars in different evolutionary stages. Our observations therefore suggest similar star formation histories in these regions, although some variations are certainly allowed. The fields are located in two regions of the LMC: one is in the northeast and two are located in the northwest. Under the assumption of a common star formation history, we combine the three fields with ground-based data at the same location as one of the fields to improve statistics for the brightest stars. We compare this stellar population with those predicted from several simple star formation histories suggested in the literature, using a combination of the R-method of Bertelli et al. (1992) and comparisons with the observed luminosity function. The only model we consider that is not rejected by the observations is one in which the star formation rate is roughly constant for most of the LMCs history and then increases by a factor of 3 about 2 Gyr ago. Such a model has roughly equal numbers of stars older and younger than 4 Gyr, and thus is not dominated by young stars. This star formation history, combined with a closed-box chemical evolution model, is consistent with observations that the metallicity of the LMC has doubled in the past 2 Gyr.