These observations are to be coordinated with a Chandra observation in early December. Please contact me if you have any questions regarding scheduling. We are willing to be flexible, and can change the observing strategy if needed to ensure appropriate coordinated scheduling. ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Oct 16 15:28:02 GMT 2009) ----- The chemical composition of AGN outflows We propose a simultaneous Chandra LETGS - HST/COS observation of the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 509, within half a year from an approved large XMM-Newton monitoring campaign. Combining 180 ks LETGS time and 10 orbits of COS time with the XMM-Newton RGS spectrum, we will obtain accurate abundances of C, N, O, Ne, Si, S, and Fe over a broad range of ionisation parameter. This allows us to determine directly the contributions from various supernova types and intermediate mass stars to the chemical enrichment processes in galaxy cores. It also will reveal directly the chemical composition of the outflow that enriches the surrounding diffuse medium. Our team has succesfully executed a similar abundances campaign on Mrk 279.
We will observe the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 509 using COS gratings G130M and G160M in a pair of visits, each 5 orbits, coordinated with a 180 ks Chandra observation tentatively scheduled for 3-6 December 2009. The HST observations should be scheduled within 4 days of the Chandra observations. If it would facilitate scheduling, we would consider splitting these observations into 4 visits of 2-3 orbits each. Our S/N requirements are driven by the troughs of the CIII* 1176 (G130M) and CIV 1549 (G160M) absorption lines. An exposure that will satisfy the needed Ciii* and Civ S/N will be more than adequate to analyse the other troughs. This is due to the fact that the Civ troughs are both at a lower throughput spectral region in the G160M grating compared with the other lines and the doublets residual intensities are closer in value, which indicates a high degree of non-black saturation. Previous STIS echelle observations of Mrk 509 showed that the bottom of the Civ line is at a flux level of 0.46e-14 erg cm-2 s-1. Due to the similar residual intensity values for the two doublet components, we need a S/N of 20 to derive an accurate solution for the column density as a function of velocity. Our experience shows that in this situation a S/N of 15 produces unacceptably large errors. For the Civ trough at 1603 A, S/N=20 for F=0.46e-14 erg cm-2 s-1 is achieved in 14300 seconds. For the Ciii* (G130M exposure) we need a S/N=50 in order to detect and measure a trough with tau~0.05. This is because the Ciii* 977 trough in the FUSE spectrum has tau~1, and we expect Ciii* to be ~5% of this value. For the appropriate flux level at Ciii* 1176 (2.e-14 erg cm-2 s-1 at 1201 A), a S/N=50 is achieved in 8200 seconds. Adding the two gratings exposures (plus necessary overheads) yields the requested 10 orbits HST COS observations. We will do the observations in 2 visits of 5 orbits each, with 3 orbits of each visit devoted to G160M, and the remaining 2 orbits to G130M. Recent observations with the UV/Optical monitor on SWIFT as part of our coordinated observing campaign show Mrk 509 to have a UV flux of 5.6e-14 at 2246 A. This is near the historical mean, and using an average historical spectrum from low-resolution archival HST observations, we predict a flux at 1401 A of 1.0e-13. This is too bright for an imaging targeting acq, so we will do a spectroscopic target acq using G130M. We note that the current flux level of 1.0e-13 at 1401 A produces a bright object warning for G130M segment B, with 7046 cts/s, which exceeds the limit of 6000 cts/s for an irregularly variable object (see ETC ID COS172433). However, we note that the maximum historical flux for Mrk 509 was observed in 1984 using IUE at a level of 1.36e-13 (see http://joy.chara.gsu.edu/PEGA/IUE/ObjectTbl.cgi). The next most recent high value was 1.1e-13 in 1992. Thus, we do not expect that our observations would even come close to this value. Being conservative, and taking a normalization of 2.0e-13, 50% higher than the historical maximum observed flux, gives a G130M Segment B count rate of 13,735 counts per second (ETC ID COS172824). We would argue that using a value this high (half a magnitude above the brightest flux ever observed) qualifies as "predictable", and thus satisfies the corresponding screening limit of 15,000 cts/s. Doing the BOT check in APT gives 3 alerts for the target, which is due to the galaxy surrounding the active nucleus. The galaxy itself is not an issue. See above for the nucleus itself. There is a final alert for an "Unknown" object in the BOA. The unkown is a barely visible faint smudge, which we judge not to be an issue. These observations are to be coordinated (within 4 days) with a 180 ks Chandra observation, tentatively scheduled for December 3-6, 2009. Thus, the two 5-orbit HST visits described here should be scheduled between November 30, 2009, and December 10, 2009. If it would aid scheduling, we would be willing to consider splitting these two visits into four visits of 2-3 orbits each, but would prefer not to in order to avoid the additional target acquisition overheads. AGN/QUASARS 12 false 180.0 0.0 false false false false false false SUPPORTED GALAXY NUCLEUS SEYFERT This object was generated by the targetselector and retrieved from the SIMBAD database. 1.0e-13 at 1401 A J2000 20 44 9.7600 -10 43 24.70 J2000 COS/FUV Spectroscopic No No G160M 1577 COS/FUV Spectroscopic No No G130M 1309 COS/FUV Spectroscopic No No G160M 1589 COS/FUV Spectroscopic No No G130M 1327 The scheduling data was generated by CASM 17.2. CASM was run in Phase II mode. /private/tmp/OPVisit7151167872102891270.xml Use G130M for target acquisition to minimze overheads. To be conservative, use 50% of historical minimum flux to calculate target acq exposure times: 0.5 x 4.1e-14 ==> 2.0e-14 at 1401 A. For G130M/1309 this gives 0.942 s to get S/N = 40. (ETC ID COS172684). Use 1.0 s exposure times. For ACQ/SEARCH use default step size of 1.767 arc sec with a 3x3 pattern. Follow with PEAKXD, then PEAKD with CENTER=DEFAULT, NUM-POS=5, and STEP-SIZE=1.2 arc sec. For science observations, we want to place gaps to avoid major emission lines and absorption troughs. G130M/1309 and G130M/1327 will place gaps red-ward of N V, and give coverage past the peak of Si IV. The two together will give full wavelength coverage (no gaps) from 1150-1469 A. G160M/1577 and G160M/1589 will cover from the blue wing of Si IV and place gaps in the far blue wing of C IV. (There will be a small gap in the final total from 1568-1577. Don't want to use a redder grating setting for G160M to avoid placing a gap too near the absorption troughs at 1600 A in the C IV profile.) 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CASM was run in Phase II mode. /private/tmp/OPVisit2174927422048391030.xml See Visit 1 comments. Overall strategy for Visit 2 is identical. (Tic-Visit :proposal-id 12022 :visit-id "02" :proposal-version -1 :trans-version "20090702" :date "16-Oct-2009 11:22:51.0" :trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0 :FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0) :number-of-orbits 5 :saa-model "31" :si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0 :data-volume 6331456 :tdrss-contact-duration 0 :coron NIL ) (Tic-Obset :proposal-id 12022 :visit-id "02" :obset-id "02" :pcs-mode "FGS" ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12022 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 1 :pcs-time 333 :si-vis-utilization 2695 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 173 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3028 :pcs-gap 0 ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12022 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 2 :pcs-time 222 :si-vis-utilization 2806 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 107 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3028 :pcs-gap 0 ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12022 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 3 :pcs-time 222 :si-vis-utilization 2806 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 97 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3028 :pcs-gap 0 ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12022 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 4 :pcs-time 222 :si-vis-utilization 2806 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 97 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3028 :pcs-gap 0 ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12022 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 5 :pcs-time 222 :si-vis-utilization 2806 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 409 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3028 :pcs-gap 0 ) true 5 0