0Assigned ID: 6214
----- Attempting Submission 1 (Wed Apr 09 09:51:06 GMT 2025) -----
HST Phase I Proposal 6214 successfully submitted.
Receipt: # 6214-1
----- Attempting Submission 2 (Wed Apr 09 09:58:15 GMT 2025) -----
HST Phase I Proposal 6214 successfully submitted.
Receipt: # 6214-2
----- Attempting Submission 3 (Thu Apr 10 20:58:39 GMT 2025) -----
HST Phase I Proposal 6214 successfully submitted.
Receipt: # 6214-3
----- Attempting Submission 4 (Thu Apr 10 21:09:22 GMT 2025) -----
HST Phase I Proposal 6214 successfully submitted.
Receipt: # 6214-4
----- Attempting Submission 5 (Thu Apr 10 21:45:13 GMT 2025) -----
----- Attempting Submission 6 (Tue Apr 15 18:48:25 GMT 2025) -----Dear Josh,
Thank you for advising the changes on TA time with F25ND3 filter! I have implemented those changes and resubmitting this for your review.
Thak you for your help and time!
Best,
Cicero, 2026-01-15
===========OLD submission notes attached below====================
]This submission follows the original proposal with newly approved additional PA constraints for HD 131488.
ETC for beta Pic science obs has a warning for buffer time smaller than minimally required 99 second. Given that our mode is MAMA ACCUM mode, we appreciate comments from CS whether
the warning can be safely ignored or not. Thank you for your help and time!1732515057----- Attempting Submission 1 (Thu Aug 14 08:15:41 GMT 2025) -----
HST Phase II Proposal 18026 successfully submitted.
Receipt: # 18026-1
----- Attempting Submission 2 (Tue Aug 19 19:51:43 GMT 2025) -----
----- Attempting Submission 3 (Wed Jan 14 21:46:08 GMT 2026) -----
----- Attempting Submission 4 (Thu Jan 15 19:50:19 GMT 2026) -----The visit planner was re-run for HD 131488 for the new target ORIENT constraints.
Checked with CS that the bright object with the current set up is safe with ETC calculations and previous successful observations.Testing Volatile Transportation in the Epoch of Terrestrial Planet FormationDebris disks offer a unique laboratory to test theories of volatile transport in the epoch of terrestrial planet formation. The leading hypothesis posits that exocomets can deliver water-ice stored in exo-Kuiper belts and the inner regions of a young planetary system in the form of water vapor via sublimation. However, liquid water remains elusive in debris disks to date. We propose to observe OH fluorescence emission as a tracer for H2O in liquid and vapor phases with HST STIS/NUV E230H and definitively to decipher whether water vapor exists in the inner regions in three young planetary systems (HD 131488, beta Pictoris, and HD 181327). These targets are most suitable because they contain water-rich exo-Kuiper belts newly discovered with JWST/NIRSpec observations and have also been identified with exocometary activities from past multi-wavelength studies. We aim to constrain the OH gas temperature, emission mechanism, and radial velocity for any detected OH line velocity to examine whether the OH gas origin is consistent with exocometary. While JWST provides new clues to the composition of planetesimal reservoirs, our proposed HST observation will provide the most direct and definitive clue for the existence of liquid H2O in debris disks. A non-detection will allow us to place the first constraints on OH dissociation rates based on observed H2O-ice column densities, providing a new benchmark for comparison with younger, gas-rich protoplanetary disks. Our proposed observation across our sample of early A to mid-F type stars will benchmark our understanding of the volatile transportation in these exoplanetary systems.We aim to observe 3 debris disks, beta Pictoris, HD 131488, and HD 181327 with STIS/NUV MAMA E230H/c3012 with longslits. The objective of this program is to detect OH molecules resulting from exocometary outgassing and/or photoevaporation from the surface of planetesimals.
Since beta Pic is very bright (V~3.86), we follow previous successful observations from PID 14735 and choose to use the 31x0.05 NDA slit to prevent saturating the detector. For HD 131488 and HD 181327, we chose to use 6 x0.2 arcsec slits. In the phase I proposal stage, we specified that a 0.2x0.2 arcsec square slit, but we have now realized that 6 x0.2 arcsec is a better choice because the extent of the slit can capture the entire disk in the FOV.
Since we are using narrow slits with widths of 0.05 and 0.2, we add a acquisition/peak-up sequence after the standard acquisition (STIS-CCD) of the target to optimize the centering of the target in the slit. We also add a wavelength cal sequence prior to our science observation. For beta Pic, we use a 0.2x0.09 arcsec slit, and for the rest two, we use 0.2 x0.2 arcsec as recommended by HST/STIS docs for longslit echelle spectrograph (https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/stisihb/chapter-12-special-uses-of-stis/12-2-long-slit-echelle-spectroscopy).
We plan to observe the beta Pic for 2210 seconds to achieve an SNR of 50. Similarly, we plan to observe 3695s for HD 131488 and 2600s for HD 181327. These numbers differ a little bit from our specified exposure in the phase 1 proposal (3875s, 1580s, and 1798s for HD 131488, HD 181327, and beta Pictoris) due to re-running the ETC. But the new numbers are still within the allocated 5-orbit limitation.
Additionally, we add position angle constraints to the science target to ensure alignment between the disk PA and slit PA. A misalignment between the two PAs will likely result in any possible emission falling outside of the slit.Cicero Lu has expertise in modeling NIR spectroscopic and imaging data. She has experience with dust grain properties with mid-infrared Spitzer IRS observations and with NIRSpec gas observations. She has discovered new silicate features in the thermal emission spectrum of the beta Pic disk as a function of stello-centric distance and is currently analyzing the most comprehensive Spitzer IRS debris disk catalog for debris disk demographics.
Christine Chen has extensive experience interpreting multiwavelength observations of debris disks. She has used ultraviolet and visual, absorption-line spectroscopy and mid-infrared emission-line spectroscopy to constrain the mass of tenuous atomic gas in debris disks. She is leading GTO observations of HD 32297 using the NIRSpec Fixed Slit to search for and characterize absorption from tenuous, volatile gas in the this edge-on debris disk.
John H. Debes has experience with STIS high contrast imaging of protoplanetary disks and debris disks. He has worked with multi-wavelength datasets on dust grain scattering properties by combining visible and near-infrared images with different instruments. He also has conducted studies of circumstellar gas around Beta Pictoris and a nearby white dwarf, WD 1124-293.
Amaya Moro-Martin is an Associate Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. She has extensive experience modeling the dynamics of dust in the Solar System and in debris disk systems.
Marshall Perrin has expertise in high contrast imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry of exoplanets and circumstellar disks from both ground and space, and serves as the JWST wavefront control operations lead.
Isabel Rebollido has expertise in spectroscopic data reduction and analysis. She has conducted a survey to detect gas in debris discs using optical spectroscopy, and has conducted multiwavelength observations of gas in debris disks.
Aki Roberge is an expert in planet formation and exoplanets, including high-resolution multiwavelength spectroscopic studies of gas present in the circumstellar environment of main-sequence stars. She is also the study scientist for the LUVOIR mission, and a member of the Exoplanet Probe Science and Technology Definition Teams.
S.Brittain Is an expert in molecular spectroscopy and modeling the excitation conditions of gas in disks.
Dr. Tracy L. Beck has extensive experience stuying the disks and outflows around young stars. A member of the NIRSpec and Telescope teams with 16 years of experience on the JWST project. PI of the JWST Wavefront Sensing and Control Calibration program. An expert in integral field spectroscopy and near infrared spectral analysis and interpretation. CoI on many JWST Cycle 1 GTO, ERS and GO projects for star and planet formation science.
Prof. Luca Matra is an expert in debris disk observations and modelling, particularly at millimeter wavelengths where he co-leads the ARKS ALMA Large Program targeting gas and dust in debris disks at unprecedented resolution, including HD131488. Prof. Matra is also an expert in exocometary gas studies, particularly spectroscopic observations for exocometary gas emission, and in molecular excitation and line radiative transfer, which will be highly relevant for the modelling of the data.
Kevin France has been the PI of HST-COS spectroscopic programs observing accreting protostars (12876, 15070), and directed the spectral and temporal analysis from similar investigation of disk-bearing stars (e.g., France et al. 2011, 2014, 2017; Schindhelm et al. 2012a, b; McJunkin et al. 2014, 2016; Hoadley et al. 2015, 2017; Arulanantham et al. 2018, 2020). He is intimately familiar with HST-COS instrument, data, and analysis procedures. Dr. France was also the PI of the HST MUSCLES Treasury Survey (GO13650) and MEATS (GO16166) Survey to study the spectral and temporal properties of exoplanet host stars (France et al. 2016, 2018; Loyd et al. 2016; Youngblood et al. 2016). He is the co-PI of the follow-on Mega-MUSCLES (GO15071) and Mega-MEATS (16701) Surveys that focused on activity in stars optimal for planetary characterization with JWST. He was a member of the COS instrument and science teams, developing numerous community tools for spectral and temporal analysis of COS data, and has authored over 70 refereed publications on cool stars, exoplanets, and planet-forming disks using UV spectra from HST.
Dr. Sarah Betti has extensive expertise in NIR high contrast imaging and modeling of circumstellar and debris disks as well as experience in multiwavelength observations such as NIR spectroscopy and optical and sub-mm imaging. She has worked on detailed high contrast water ice studies in circumstellar disks and NIR accretion studies of young T-Tauri and brown dwarf stars.
Dr. Bin Ren is en expert user and helped with phase 2 APT on the acquisition sequence and orientation constraint calculations to maximize the chance of alignment between the extended disk (the science target) with the HST STIS long slit position angle for the 31x0.05''NDA and 6X0.2'' longslits.
Dr. Andre-Nicholas Chene has helped me with understanding the effect of Earth's atmospheric OH with archival white dwarf spectra to maximize the science return of the program. He is an expert on model early type stars and has helped me with plans for correcting atmosphere OH emission signatures from the astrophysical ones.Exoplanets and Exoplanet FormationStellar Physics and Stellar Types6falsefalsefalsefalsefalsefalsefalseSUPPORTEDSTARA0-A3 V-IVDISKThis object was generated by the targetselector and retrieved from the SIMBAD database. SIMBAD listed proper motion for this target. When retrieving targets with PM from SIMBAD, APT requests the coordinates be calculated with an epoch of the year 2000. Do not modify this epoch. Always review coordinates using the Target Confirmation tool, which graphically displays the PM.J2000J2000EXT-STARA4-A9 V-IVDISKThis object was generated by the targetselector and retrieved from the SIMBAD database.
SIMBAD listed proper motion for this target. When retrieving targets with PM from SIMBAD, APT requests the coordinates be calculated with an epoch of the year 2000. Do not modify this epoch. Always review coordinates using the Target Confirmation tool, which graphically displays the PM.J2000J2000EXT-STARDISKF3-F9This object was generated by the targetselector and retrieved from the SIMBAD database.
SIMBAD listed proper motion for this target. When retrieving targets with PM from SIMBAD, APT requests the coordinates be calculated with an epoch of the year 2000. Do not modify this epoch. Always review coordinates using the Target Confirmation tool, which graphically displays the PM.J2000J2000STIS/NUV-MAMASpectroscopicNoNoE230H3012STIS/NUV-MAMASpectroscopicNoNoE230H3012STIS/NUV-MAMASpectroscopicNoNoE230H3012The scheduling data was generated by CASM 34.0.CASM was run in Phase II mode./private/var/folders/f6/qpsz4sv53h5g28lvqf22m3980000gn/T/OPVisit5781955335798236776.xmlThe ETC gave a warning on buffer time being too short. Would this affect the science data? The STIS handbook says for a time-tag obs, the buffer time must be over 99 seconds. This observation is MAMA ACCUM mode, can we safely ignore the warnings? My alternative solution is to use 31x0.05NDC which would drop SNR by a factor of 2.5 but keep the buffer time long enough. Thank you for your time and help.(Tic-Visit
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