HETG

Follow-on Science Instrument

Contract NAS8-01129

 

Monthly Status Report Numbers 013 and 014

March & April 2003

 

HETG Themes:
X-GEF Preliminary Results
And
HRMA FWHM monitoring

 

Prepared in accordance with DR 972MA-002; DPD #972

Prepared for

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama 35812

 

Center for Space Research; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge, MA 02139

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1.0 Distribution List for Monthly Status Report

 

 

MIT-External Electronic:

FD03/Mike Smith, MSFC                   Carl.M.Smith@msfc.nasa.gov

PS41/Steve Morris, MSFC                 Steven.D.Morris@msfc.nasa.gov

SD50/Martin Weisskopf, MSFC            martin.weisskopf@msfc.nasa.gov

 

MIT-External Hardcopy:

                                    None specified.

 

 

            MIT-Internal Electronic:

                                                Elaine Tirrell                egt@mit.edu

                                                Gail Monahan              gmonahan@mit.edu

 

MIT-Internal Hardcopy:

                                                Claude Canizares         Room 3-234 (via Gail Monahan)

                                                Deepto Chakrabarty     Room 37-501 (via Elaine Tirrell)

                                                Kathryn Flanagan        Room NE80-6103 (via Elaine Tirrell)

                                                File                              (via Elaine Tirrell)

 

 

Please send distribution requests and other comments on this document to dd@mit.edu .

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2.0 Schedule of Past and Future Events Relevant to HETG

 

 

Date	Past Events	Comment
Mar. 23-26	HEAD meeting, Mt. Tremblant, Canada	M. Jimenez-Garate; A. Juett; S.C. Gallagher; K.A. Flanagan
April	Chandra Quarterly
April 21-25	Star Formation Meeting, Madrid Spain	(N.S. Schulz)
April 30	XMM AO3 proposals due

 

 

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3.0 Instrument Status and Science Support

 

 

3.1 Flight Events and HETG Instrument Status

 

The HETG continues to function with no outstanding issues.

In March and April there were 6 HETG observations. Among them of note were one HETG GTO observation of TV Crt and two observations of bright point sources in TE mode useful for HRMA FWHM monitoring GX 339-4 and Cyg X-1 (see below.)

 

3.2 Science Support to CXC, SWG, etc.

 

The key ingredient in the HETG’s high spectral resolution is the high spatial resolution provided by the HRMA. We have an ongoing monitoring of the width of the HRMA’s PSF core to catch any drift in the HRMA width (expected due to defocus caused by optical bench length changes due to degassing.) The FWHM plot was updated recently with several observations and continues to show a remarkably constant FWHM value, see the Plot on the next page.

 

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4.0 GTO Science Program

4.1 Observations and Data status

The final GTO target list for Cycle 5 was submitted and reconciled with other GTO and GO conflicts in preparation for the Peer Review in June. The three HETG GTO targets totaling 707 ks are listed in the table below – note that one of them will be competed in the Peer Review.

 

There was analysis progress on past GTO observations, briefly summarized here: NGC 5506 paper progress; TV Crt data received, analysis in progress; Orion Trapezium second paper resubmitted; N132D results organized and model grid added to ratio-ratio plot of regions; E0102 mass determinations and errors finalized.

 

 

Cycle 5

Object Science Theme	AO	Obs ID	Seq. No.	Expos. (ks)	Observer / Analyst	Start Date	Comments & Analysis	Talks and Publications
4U 1957+11 XRB	5	TBD	Prop. 05400034	[67]	M. Nowak	[TBD]	Will be competed in Peer Review
MCG—6-30-15 AGN	5	TBD	Prop. 05700032	[540]	J. Lee	[TBD]
Orion Nebula Cluster “Hot” Stars	5	TBD	Prop. 05200040	[100.0]	N. Schulz	[TBD]

 

4.2 Science theme progress

The HETG GTO science efforts span a range of “science themes” given in the list below. Detailed progress in these areas will be picked up in future months’ reports.

 

GTO Science Theme	Abbreviation (for App’ix A)	Researchers (HETG in caps)	Date of last [next] reporting Assembler of theme material
“Cool” Stars	Cool Star	dph,nss,psw,bb	September, 2002. Dave Huenemoerder
“Hot” Stars	Hot Star	nss,dph,psw,bi	October, 2002. Norbert Schulz
X-ray Binaries & Accretion Disks	XRB	MJ-G,AJ,nss,hlm, man, jmm, psw	December, 2002. Norbert Schulz, Mike Nowak
Supernova Remnants	SNR	KAF,DD,JMM, AF,jh,gea,tp	May, 2002. Dan Dewey
Isolated Neutron Stars	iNS	MDS,hlm, nss	January, 2003. Mike Stage, Herman Marshall
Galaxies & Clusters of Galaxies	Gal., Clust.	TJ,mw,jh	August, 2002. Michael Wise, Tesla Jeltema
Active Galactic Nuclei and Jets	AGN, Jet	SG,RG,MJ-G,hlm, man,jl,sm,jg	June, 2002. Herman Marshall
Inter-Stellar Medium	ISM	AJ,nss	February, 2003. Adrienne Juett, Norbert Schulz
Inter-Galactic Medium	IGM	SG,RG,hlm	July, 2002. Taotao Fang

 

4.3 HETG-related Software: Development, Evaluation, and Support

 

(No update on s/w this reporting period.)

 

 

4.4 Presentations (March and April)

 

Kathryn A. Flanagan, “Estimating the Oxygen Ejecta Mass in E0102-72”, Poster at HEAD meeting, March 2003.

Kathryn A. Flanagan, “Chandra Observations of the Bright Eastern Knot of Puppis A”, Poster at HEAD meeting, March 2003.

Sarah C. Gallagher et al., “Testing Unification: Examining the X-ray Properties of Seyfert Host Galaxies”, Poster at HEAD meeting, March 2003.

Mario Jimenez-Garate, “Spectral Signatures of an Accretion Disk Corona during the Low State of Hercules X-1”, Talk at HEAD meeting, March 2003.

Adrienne M. Juett et al., “X-ray Absorption in the Interstellar Medium”, Poster at HEAD meeting, March 2003

 

 

 

4.5 Publications (March and April), see also: http://space.mit.edu/csr_pubs.html

 

“The Evolution of Cluster Substructure”, Tesla E. Jeltema, Claude R. Canizares, Mark W. Bautz, David A. Buote, in Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series, Vol. 3: Clusters of Galaxies: Probes of Cosmological Structure and Galaxy Evolution, ed. J. S. Mulchaey, A. Dressler, and A. Oemler (2003).

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5.0 Systems and Engineering Support

 

5.1 Documentation and “Design Knowledge Capture” and 5.3 Anomalies, Insert/retract, etc. Support

 

No activities in these areas in March and April.

 

5.2 Spares Retest and Test Instrumentation

 

Test Instrumentation

A summary of lab test equipment used on the HETG project was given in the HETG Quarterly charts (4/1/03). A variety of grating-facet and HETG-level testing was carried out during the HETG design and construction phase and is summarized in the following list:

 

Visual inspection

Storage

Thermal cycling

Acoustic/vibration

Laser Reflection - period

X-ray Grating Evaluation Facility (X-GEF) - efficiency

Alignment to HESS

Vibration of HETG

Outgassing/particulates monitoring

S/C-as-installed video inspection

 

The disposition of this equipment will be decided and made clear by the end of this contract, Fall 2004.

 

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Spares Retest

The X-ray efficiency data on the Vacuum Storage Gratings (VSG), collected most recently this past February, have been preliminarily analyzed. In all, 8 HEG gratings and 6 MEG gratings have been maintained in laboratory vacuum and now tested for up to 7 years since their fabrication in 1995-1996.

A detailed report on VSG data taken through 1998 (Version 2.0, http://space.mit.edu/HETG/vsg/vsg.html ) showed good period stabilitythrough the LR tests. The X-GEF tests showed some drift in X-ray diffraction efficiency especially for the MEG gratings. At that time contamination on the X-GEF SSD and PSPC detectors was identified, see Appendix of Version 2.0 report above.

In early 1999 the X-GEF SSD window was cleaned and the PSPC window replaced – removing the contamination. X-GEF tests were then carried out in mid-1999 as well as near the end of 2000 and just recently in February 2003.

The plot at right is an updated version of Figure vsg.4 of the 1998 report and shows the stability of the VSG gratings’ measured efficiencies over the past 4 years (during which time there was no further contamination buildup in the X-GEF system.) The efficiencies are plotted relative to their initial post-fabrication measured values (the central dashed line level) with the dotted lines at +/-10% change from the initial values. The connected diamonds show the trend for a given grating. Five different efficiencies are plotted: MEGs at 1 and 4 keV and HEGs at 1, 4, and 8 keV.

The stability seen here indicates there is no extreme evolution of the gratings’ diffraction properties with time and a similar result for the flight HETG is to be expected.

 

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6.0 Management

 

6.1 Program Office & NASA Support

 

Responded to MSFC inquiries about HETG test equipment and its future disposition in relation to the CXC follow-on contract.

 

6.2 MIT-internal management activities

 

HETG postdoc hiring: offer made to and accepted by Andy Young, currently at U Maryland.

 

 

7.0 Open Issues, Problems, etc.

 

There are no open issues or problems regarding the HETG.