0 Assigned ID: 3435 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Mar 25 19:12:57 GMT 2022) ----- HST Phase I Proposal 3435 successfully submitted. Receipt: # 3435-1 ----- Attempting Submission 2 (Fri Mar 25 23:49:40 GMT 2022) ----- HST has delivered breakthrough high-contrast images of debris disks surrounding bright nearby stars that are universally recognized as pioneering for the field of exoplanets. These archival data could continue to have a critical scientific impact when advanced observatories such as ground-based AO, ALMA, and soon JWST, target the very same disks and will depend on HST's optical data to interpret the longer wavelength results. Despite the impactful role of HST debris disk imaging that began 28 years ago, only the NICMOS data have been processed for a legacy archive. Here we propose to reprocess all of the optical HST data on debris disks in a uniform manner that includes PSF subtractions and astrometric calibrations using Gaia. The Gaia astrometric calibration is a new and powerful method to solve a difficult problem: in the vast majority of debris disk studies to date, the position of the target star is not known to high precision because it is occulted by a coronagraph. This hampers the discovery and tracking of disk features or point sources moving in the time domain relative to the host star. In this legacy database, investigators will be able to download the PSF-subtracted data, including those fields with non-detections of disks, and immediately obtain reliable astrometry of sources relative to the host star. The library of disk images will enable the precision tracking of exoplanets and disk features, the exploration of population statistics, the multi-wavelength analysis of debris disk architectures and grain properties, and the testing of new theories, thereby ensuring that these HST data are meaningful for a new generation of exoplanet studies. Dr. Robert De Rosa is an expert in high contrast imaging observations, data reduction techniques, precision astrometry and photometry, and developing pipelines for the efficient processing of large data archives. He has prior experience with the ACS and STIS coronagraphic data sets, implementing a novel code for relative astrometry that computes the astrometry reference frame using the Gaia stars imaged in each field. Together with the PI he mentored a student Meiji Nguyen for the research project that detected the orbital motion of the unusually wide-orbit exoplanet HD 106906 b using multi-epoch HST data along with Gaia (Nguyen et al. 2021). Professor Paul Kalas specializes in the science of debris disks and exoplanets, with expertise in high-contrast imaging methods (observations, data reduction, and analysis) using all of HST's past and present imaging cameras. He led the science teams that discovered and characterized numerous debris disks from both the ground and space, including AU Mic and Fomalhaut. He has extensive experience managing large and long-term science programs and mentoring students and postdocs. The majority of his prior HST programs had the goal of imaging debris disks, but not conducting precision astrometry on targets, which is the emphasis of this legacy proposal and the proposed archival research on HD 141569. The one exception out of the 139 debris disk targets in the legacy archive is Fomalhaut where his prior programs had the goal of tracking its orbit astrometrically. He is also the PI of a 2 orbit Cycle 29 STIS program that has not been executed yet which aims to track the orbit of HD 106906 b. Exoplanets and Exoplanet Formation 0 Legacy false false false false false false SUPPORTED