The Johns Hopkins University Center for Astrophysical Sciences
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146 The Johns Hopkins University Center for Astrophysical Sciences Department of Physics and Astronomy Baltimore, Maryland 21218 @S0002-7537~99!03401-0# The following report covers the period from October 1997 ~FUSE!, a PI-class astronomy mission within the NASA Ori- through September 1998. gins program. FUSE will explore the Universe through high- resolution ~R 5 24,000-30,000! spectroscopy at far ultravio- 1. INTRODUCTION let wavelengths ~905-1190 Å!. This spectral window will Historically, the backbone of our expanding astronomy permit the study of many astrophysically important atoms, program has been space ultraviolet instrumentation and mis- ions and molecules to investigate the nature and composition sions, and that portion of our program continues strong, with of the interstellar medium, the intergalactic medium, active the rapid progress of both FUSE ~Far Ultraviolet Spectro- galactic nuclei, quasars, massive stars, supernovae remnants, scopic Explorer, to be launched in early 1999! and ACS planetary nebulae, and the outer atmospheres of cool stars ~Advanced Camera for Surveys, for Hubble Space Tele- and planets. The highest priority goals of the FUSE science scope, to be placed aboard HST in mid 2000!. Our sounding team include comprehensive studies of the abundance and rocket program continutes to train the experimentalists of the distribution of deuterium in the disk and halo of the Milky future, and our participation in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Way, and the distribution and kinematics of hot gas in the continues to be vigorous. Theoretical astronomy and ground- disk and halo of the Milky Way and other galaxies. In addi- based observing continue as major components of our bal- tion, more than half of the available observing time will be anced total astronomy and astrophysics program. awarded by NASA to guest investigators. JHU is responsible for the development and operation of the FUSE satellite. The Satellite Control Center and all mis- 2. PERSONNEL sion and science operations activities are located in the CAS visitors are S. Casertano, L. Dressel, B. R. Espey, Bloomberg Center on the Homewood Campus. The mission M. Finkenthal, A. Fullerton, T. Hartquist, J. Najita, P. Rosati, is scheduled for launch in the spring of 1999 on a Delta II W. Sparks, and M. Urry. Departed CAS is D. Hall ~Univer- rocket and has a nominal lifetime of three years. sity of Colorado!. On leave from CAS are: Professor R. Gi- JHU/CAS scientists participating in the FUSE mission are acconi ~Director, ESO!; Associate Research Scientist C. P. Principal Investigator Warren Moos, B. G. Anderson, L. Bi- Holmes ~Program Executive for Science Operations, NASA anchi, W. Blair, P. Chayer, A. Davidsen. P. Feldman, S. Space MO& DA, NASA Headquarters!; Professor C. W. Friedman, A. Fullerton, J. Kruk, E. Murphy, J. Murthy, W. Kim ~President, Korean Academy of Sciences!. CAS perma- Oegerle, D. Sahnow, K. Sembach, and H. Weaver. nent staff are: Professors A. F. Davidsen, P. D. Feldman ~Chair, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and As- 4. THE ADVANCED CAMERA FOR SURVEYS tronomy!, H. C. Ford ~Director, CAS!, T. M. Heckman, R. The Advanced Camera for Surveys ~ACS! will be in- C. Henry ~Director, Maryland Space Grant Consortium!,B. stalled in the Hubble Space Telescope during the third ser- R. Judd, J. H. Krolik, H. W. Moos, D. Neufeld, D. F. Strobel, vicing mission, now scheduled for July of 2000. The ACS is A. Szalay, E. T. Vishniac, and R. F. G. Wyse; GSFC Scien- being built by a collaboration between Ball Aerospace, the tists R. Mushotzky and K. A. Weaver; STScI Scientists R. J. Johns Hopkins University, and the Goddard Space Flight Allen, H. C. Ferguson, M. G. Hauser ~Deputy Director, Center. Members of the science team, led by the PI Holland STScI!, G. A. Kriss, M. Livio, M. Postman, and R. Williams; Ford, are at JHU, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Associate Research Professor W. P. Blair; Principal Re- University of Arizona, the University of California Santa search Scientist L. Taff; Research Scientists L. Bianchi, R. Cruz, Leiden University, the European Southern Observa- Burg, S. Friedman, J. Kruk, S. McCandliss, J. Murthy, W. tory, and the Goddard Space Flight Center. A list of science Oegerle, Z. Tsvetavov, A. Uomoto, H. Weaver, and W. and engineering team members and information about the Zheng; Associate Research Scientists B-G. Andersson, C. M ACS can be found at http://adcam.pha.jhu.edu. Carollo, A. Connolly, I. Csabai, A. Dey, M. Dickinson, D. The ACS is undergoing final assembly and optical align- Golimowski, M. E. Kaiser, P. A. Knezek, G. Meurer, D. ment at Ball. The instrument will be shipped to Goddard in Sahnow, K. R. Sembach, D. Stutman, and A. Thakar; and November, 1998, for extensive thermal vacuum testing and Postdoctoral Fellows E. Agol, R. Brunner, M. Houdashelt, B. calibration. The instrument will be shipped with the second Jain, P. Kunszt, N. Levenson, T. Matsubara, E. May, E. Mur- flight build of the High Resolution Camera ~HRC! and the phy, S. Ridgeway, R. Sankrit, D. Strickland, M. SubbaRao, first flight build of the Wide Field Camera ~WFC!. After P. Tozzi, J. Wiseman, and B. Wolven. testing at Goddard, the ACS will be returned to Ball for further work on the cameras. The HRC Build 2 camera will 3. THE FAR ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROSCOPIC be disassembled to fix a problem with internal baffles. A EXPLORER third build of the WFC will then be installed in the ACS. The The largest project within the Center for Astrophysical third build will include changes in the bonding of the two- Sciences is the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer stage thermoelectric coolers, and will have two 2k3 4k THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 147 CCDs that are superior to those in Build 2. After alignment Although the HUT project has officially wound down this of the cameras, the ACS will be returned to Goddard for final year, there is still much to be done with the data returned calibration and subsequent shipping to Cape Canaveral in from the two Astro shuttle missions. This year, effort has preparation for launch. concentrated on the interpretation of the FUV spectrum of the magnetic cataclysmic variable AM Herculis, including 5. RESEARCH AND ACTIVITIES the short timescale variability seen during Astro-2. This ef- fort, led by graduate student B. Greeley and including K. Luciana Bianchi is co-Investigator of the NASA SMEX Long ~STScI! and J. Raymond ~SAO!, has included in a mission GALEX ~The Galaxy Evolution Explorer, P.I. C. detailed time variability analysis of both line and continuum Martin, Caltech!. GALEX will be launched in 2001 to per- components, and demonstrates the importance of coverage in form imaging and spectroscopic imaging and spectroscopic surveys of the sky in the ultraviolet. GALEX will produce an the 900 - 1200 Å of these systems. Other HUT projects unprecedented, statistically powerful database of UV images completed this year include a paper on Her X-1 ~led by B. and spectra of nearby and distant galaxies, stellar objects, Boroson from CfA! and the Herbig-Haro object HH2 ~led by and a UV map of the background. Luciana Bianchi is respon- J. Raymond!. Work continues on an extensive HUT/IUE/ sible for the GALEX science data archive. The ( ' 3TB! optical data set for a shocked cloud in the Cygnus Loop with GALEX science archive will contain an order of magnitude graduate student C. Danforth. HUT and IUE ultraviolet ob- more objects than any previous catalog, and an unprec- servations of supernova remnants were presented by Blair in edented, background limited survey of the whole sky in two invited talks at the final IUE conference in Seville, Spain, in UV bands. 19987 November. L. Bianchi continued her study of hot massive stars in Work with HST continues to focus primarily on analysis Local Group galaxies based on HST and ground based data of data for two young ‘‘oxygen-rich’’ supernova remnants in with analysis of WR stars. Two young star forming regions the Magellanic Clouds, with J. Morse ~U. Col.!, Raymond, in NGC6822 were also resolved into their stellar content, Long, and others. HST imaging and spectroscopy have shed revealing coeval populations only a few million years old. new light on the abundances, excitation mechanisms, and circumstellar environments of N132D in the LMC and R. Chandar „graduate student…, L. Bianchi and H. Ford discovered a significant population of young, blue clus- 1E0102-7219 in the SMC. These results were presented at ters in M33, and compiled the first unbiased, representative the fall 1997 ‘‘TexMex’’ conference and at the IUE confer- sample of star clusters for this galaxy, from HST WFPC2 ence mentioned above. The imaging portion of a cycle 7 multiband images. Only four of these objects were known as HST program on nonradiative shocks in the Cygnus Loop clusters before, and 11 were classified as extended objects. was begun, but the spectroscopy portion has been delayed by The study ~Ph.D. thesis of Ms. Chandar! extends the param- programmatic concerns. New post-doctoral fellow R. Sankrit eter space of known M33 clusters in two ways: (i) detecting ~previously from Arizona State Univ.! has joined Blair to more peaked and intrinsically small objects ~observable radii work on this and other projects. ; 19), which are not distinguishable from stellar objects in Two ground-based optical surveys of nearby galaxies ground based studies; (ii) revealing the youngest clusters have come to completion this year. With D. Matonick and R. and measuring their ages by use of far-UV and U,B,V im- Fesen ~Dartmouth! and Long, 35 supernova remnants have ages. This study revealed that the clusters formed continu- been identified in the spiral galaxy NGC 2403, with 15 of ously in M33 from ; 106 2 1010 years.