0 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Jul 22 17:50:39 GMT 2016) ----- HST Phase II Proposal 14607 (14607.apt) successfully submitted. Receipt: # 14607-1 ----- Attempting Submission 2 (Fri Jan 19 17:18:47 GMT 2018) ----- ----- Attempting Submission 3 (Tue May 15 23:52:55 GMT 2018) ----- Identify the signature of neutron star mergers through rapid Hubble observations of a short GRB The afterglow of some short GRBs displays a late-time rebrightening, visible a few days after the gamma-ray burst. Recent HST observations provided tantalizing evidence that such late-time bump could be explained as the emergence of the underlying kilonova emission. This would represent the incontrovertible signature of a neutron star merger, and the first direct link between short GRBs and their progenitors. If the kilonova interpretation is correct, it would also confirm that neutron star mergers are significant and possibly dominant sources of the heaviest elements (e.g. gold, platinum, uranium) in the Universe. Here we ask for rapid HST follow-up observation of a nearby (z<0.4) short duration GRB in order to detect the expected kilonova bump, and to constrain the origin of the observed emission. Multi-color observations are critical to pin down the nature of the observed rebrightening, and to distinguish it from the standard afterglow. The proposed observations will provide the smoking gun evidence connecting short GRBs and neutron star mergers, and will serve as a powerful observational input in the forthcoming era of gravitational wave astronomy. Below we provide an illustrative description of our observational strategy. Given the broad range of short GRB redshifts, afterglow and host properties, the exact details of the observations (response time, cadence, and filters) will be determined on a case by case basis. We request four epochs of observations, the exact times will be scaled according to the observed afterglow decay, the GRB distance scale, and the total time span of the ground-based data. We will plan our observations in order to require a reaction time >2 days. Each epoch will consist of three orbits in order to image the target in different colors. We remark that the choice of UVIS and IR filters reported in this observing form is preliminary, and the final selection will be made at the time of the ToO in order to match the best sampled light curves from the ground. Cosmology 3 false false false false false false false SUPPORTED STAR GAMMA RAY BURSTER NO J2000 F606W~27 AB mag STAR GAMMA RAY BURSTER NEUTRON STAR SUPERNOVA X-RAY BURSTER X-RAY TRANSIENT J2000 WFC3/UVIS Imaging No No F606W WFC3/IR Imaging No No F110W WFC3/IR Imaging No No F160W POS-TARG DITHER 0.173 LINE 0.112 false false 81.785 4 23.884 WFC3-UVIS-DITHER-BOX 1 false POS-TARG DITHER 0.572 LINE 0.365 false false 74.653 4 18.528 WFC3-IR-DITHER-BOX-MIN 2 false Timing link suitability includes constraints ([02 After 01 by 30.0 to 45.0 days]) The scheduling data was generated by CASM 26.0. CASM was run in Phase II mode. /private/var/folders/v9/35fyv8k52f359xb15y6gdyfw0000gn/T/OPVisit7094313791139724857.xml Our favorite time-window is between January 26 and February 1st, in coordination with scheduled Chandra, XMM-Newton and ATCA observations 1517244455000 285.0 (Tic-Visit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "01" :proposal-version -1 :trans-version "20180409" :date "15-May-2018 19:52:32.0" :trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0 :FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0) :number-of-orbits 1 :saa-model "29" :si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0 :data-volume 1154992 :tdrss-contact-duration 0 :coron NIL ) (Tic-Obset :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "01" :obset-id "01" :pcs-mode "FGS" ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "01" :orbit-number 1 :pcs-time 333 :si-vis-utilization 2764 :al-overhead-at-end 116 :internal-dur-at-end 668 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3217 :pcs-gap 0 ) true 1 0 nearby GRB Timing link suitability includes constraints ([02 After 01 by 30.0 to 45.0 days] [03 After 02 by 75.0 to 90.0 days]) The scheduling data was generated by CASM 26.0. CASM was run in Phase II mode. /private/var/folders/v9/35fyv8k52f359xb15y6gdyfw0000gn/T/OPVisit1207574722499939063.xml Our favorite time-window is between February 28 and March 3rd. 1521037844000 335.0 (Tic-Visit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "02" :proposal-version -1 :trans-version "20180409" :date "15-May-2018 19:52:35.0" :trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0 :FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0) :number-of-orbits 1 :saa-model "29" :si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0 :data-volume 1154992 :tdrss-contact-duration 0 :coron NIL ) (Tic-Obset :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "02" :obset-id "02" :pcs-mode "FGS" ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 1 :pcs-time 333 :si-vis-utilization 2824 :al-overhead-at-end 116 :internal-dur-at-end 668 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3217 :pcs-gap 0 ) true 1 0 nearby GRB Timing link suitability includes constraints ([03 After 02 by 75.0 to 90.0 days]) The scheduling data was generated by CASM 26.0. CASM was run in Phase II mode. /Users/ele/Downloads/OP-cache/14607-v03.xml Our favorite time-window is between May 15th and June 1st. (Tic-Visit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "03" :proposal-version -1 :trans-version "20180409" :date "15-May-2018 19:51:52.0" :trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0 :FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0) :number-of-orbits 1 :saa-model "29" :si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0 :data-volume 1154992 :tdrss-contact-duration 0 :coron NIL ) (Tic-Obset :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "03" :obset-id "03" :pcs-mode "FGS" ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "03" :orbit-number 1 :pcs-time 333 :si-vis-utilization 2824 :al-overhead-at-end 116 :internal-dur-at-end 668 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3217 :pcs-gap 0 ) true 1 0 nearby GRB The scheduling data was generated by CASM 26.0. CASM was run in Phase II mode. /private/var/folders/v9/35fyv8k52f359xb15y6gdyfw0000gn/T/OPVisit6263518743473574355.xml We'd like to keep the same orientation from previous visits of the same target. (Tic-Visit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "04" :proposal-version -1 :trans-version "20180409" :date "15-May-2018 19:52:01.0" :trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0 :FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0) :number-of-orbits 1 :saa-model "30" :si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0 :data-volume 974880 :tdrss-contact-duration 0 :coron NIL ) (Tic-Obset :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "04" :obset-id "04" :pcs-mode "FGS" ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 14607 :visit-id "04" :orbit-number 1 :pcs-time 333 :si-vis-utilization 3024 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 709 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3471 :pcs-gap 0 ) true 1 0