Max Mutchler Research & Instrument ScientistSpace Telescope Science Institute1 October 2009

A behind-the-scenes perspective:Hubble servicing, calibrations, and “first light”

Launch of the Hubble Space TelescopeApril 24, 1990

“Top 10 reasons why the Hubble telescope isn’t working…”

Hubble was deployed and is serviced by the Space Shuttle

19901993 1997199920022009

Hubble servicing mission 1 December 1993

WFPC2 installed…a bit too tightly!

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts Jupiter in July 1994, and Hubble’s comeback story begins!

Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was installed in 2002…and failed in 2007

Two Space Shuttles on the launch pad again: Hubble’s 5th servicing mission, and it’s “launch on need” contingency rescue mission…gulp!

“Launch on need” contingency…

a.k.a. the end of the Space Shuttle program

Date: Sun May 10 14:28 EDT 2009Subject: good fortune?

Greetings All,

Apologies in advance for the spam, but this one was too strange not to mention.

Yesterday (Saturday) I was out having dinner at P.F. Chang's with the family, about to drop off the kids with their grandparents -- my wife and I are flying down tonight to see the launch.

At the end of the meal, we all cracked our fortune cookies.  On the flip side, as is often the case, each of us had a Chinese translation of a common English word.  My wife had "salt"; my daughters had "cucumber" and "strawberry".

The flip side of my fortune was the translation of "Space Shuttle". Whoa.

Here's hoping it's *good* fortune.

--Norman

Launch on 11 May 2009

5 days ofextra-vehicularactivities (EVAs) or “spacewalking”

AdvancedCamera

(ACS)repair

Goddard Spaceflight Center STOCC…16-hour shift for the ACS team during EVA 3 !

Monitoring ACS detector artifacts seen in “blank” images: bias frame (0 sec)

2002 2009

ACS WFC superbiascalibration reference fileSMOV 11369 CCD functional8 July 2009

Monitoring ACS detector artifacts seen in “blank” images: dark frame (1000 sec)

2002 2009

ACS dark and corresponding data quality flagging:no pixel left behind!

dark frame bad pixel flags

Pipeline calibrations

Hubble “first light” after SM413 June 2009 at 7:52 UT

Starburst galaxy NGC 6217

SMOV program 11371:ACS amplifier crosstalk

Video: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/video/a/

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic image 1

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic image 2

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic image 3

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic image 4

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic sum image

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic drizzled-cleaned image

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic with further cosmetic cleaning

NGC 6217 in DSI mode with F658N Mosaic before new superbias why we don’t release images until after SMOV!

NGC 6217 with ACS / WFCMosaic 4-filter composite image

ACS SMOV program 11371

amplifier crosstalk

amp A

chip gap

amp D

ACS ERO first look: Abell 370

ACS ERO: Abell 370

Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)

So much for planning the ERO release: Jupiter reprises its SM1 role

WFC3EarlyReleaseObservations(ERO)

9 Sep 2009

ERS next…

Visible light

Infrared light

Stephan’s Quintetin infrared light

Stephan’s Quintetin infrared light

The feeding frenzy is on !!!

Hubble Ultra Deep Field(HUDF) with WFC3 / IR

We utilize the newly-acquired, ultra-deep WFC3/IR observations over the HUDF to search for star-forming galaxies at z~8-8.5, only 600 million years from recombination. These remarkable data reach ~0.5 AB mag deeper than ever before, and now are an excellent match to the HUDF optical ACS data.

We present a sample of 16 robust z~7 z_{850}-dropout galaxies detected by the newly installed WFC3/IR camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. These remarkable data cover 4.7 arcmin^2 and are the deepest NIR images ever taken, reaching to ~29 mag AB (5sigma).

21 July 2009

Scott Altman

Mike Massimino

Megan MacArthur John Grunsfeld

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUl5oMfjq0A&feature=channel

Testing prototype tactile Carina Nebula image with Noreen Grice at National Federation of the Blind “Youth Slam” event in July 2009(will debut at AAS in January 2010)

Senator Mikulski mentions being “inspired” by Noreen’s earlier books at ERO press conference on 9 Sep 2009

President Barack Obama talks to the crew of the STS-125 mission, orbiting Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis the day after the crew released the freshly serviced Hubble Space Telescope.

Photo credit: NASA/White House/Pete Souza

Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld: What always strikes me as being so incredible is that it's almost impossible to go into any K-12 classroom these days and not see Hubble images on the wall inspiring kids to do great things and maybe some of them to become astronauts some day and push our frontiers even farther.

President Obama: Well, I know that you've excited my 10-year-old and my 7-year-old. And they've got some images like that that they prize whenever we talk about space. And so, by allowing Hubble to continue on its journey, you've really allowed all of us to continue on our journey for growth and exploration. I do have to just, by the way, say, Captain, that you and Dr. Grunsfeld as Illinoisans, you know I've gotta give you a special shout out.

Atlantis: Well, thanks very much, my sister was just asking today to take a picture of Chicago as we went by. We were able to see it in the distance and take a picture so we can send that along as well.

President Obama: Outstanding. We'll I've gotta get a copy of that picture. Maybe I ... did you guys see my house? I'm trying to figure out if my lawn is getting mowed there. I haven't been back for a couple of months.

Atlantis: We'll have to point Hubble at it to see that.

A behind-the-scenes perspective on Hubble servicing, calibrations, and "first light"

The riskiest part of the recent Hubble servicing mission was the repair of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Since 1998, Max Mutchler has been member of the ACS team at STScI, where he has been involved in calibrations, designing observing strategies, and analyzing images. He was involved with the first test images taken minutes after the astronauts completed the ACS repairs, and also the "first light" image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6217. He also worked on the Early Release Observations (EROs) for both ACS and the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), so he is often the first person to glimpse the raw images beamed down from Hubble. Max will share his perspective on the exciting series of events over the past few months, and help explain: why did it take 4 months to release the first new images!

Max Mutchler is a scientist who has been working on the Hubble Space Telescope for the entire 19-year mission, including the recent Space Shuttle servicing mission. As an expert on Hubble's cameras, Max has been involved in observations of some of the nearest and farthest objects in the universe, which notably includes the discovery of Pluto's moons Nix and Hydra. He is also a member of the Hubble Heritage team that has produced many of the most iconic images from Hubble, and he recently helped produce the first images from the newly-serviced Hubble.