Other
Scientific paper
Jul 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009hst..prop12309o&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #12309. Cycle 18
Other
Scientific paper
The WFC3 is arguably the most powerful camera that has been used on the HST. This capability arises in part from the uniquely complete set of narrow-band filters that were incorporated for making images of nebulae in emission-lines. Turning these oft-times beautiful images into scientifically useful information requires accurate flux calibration of the filters, which is the first subject of this proposal. The present plan is that WFC3 calibration will be done from pre-launch properties of the filters and observations of stars. The WFC3 filters transmission profiles were measured pre-launch in a different optical configuration and temperature than applies within the WFC3, thus rendering uncertain any flux calibrations tied to those pre-launch measurements. We propose to perform a Òground-truthÓ calibration of the WFC3 narrow-band filters using NGC 6720 as a reference source, in much the same manner that the PI did when calibrating similar filters in the WFPC2 and the ACS.These new calibrations will then be used to address the t^2 problem in Gaseous Nebulae. This is the source of uncertainties in the relative abundances of factors 1.1 to 10 and undermines efforts to trace the abundance variations within our Galaxy and other galaxies. The t^2 problem remains unresolved after four decades and the NGC 6720 images used for the filter calibration may resolve the problem if they show that regions of small-scale temperature fluctuations arise from low-temperature shadow-zones behind knots that are known to exist within the nebula or from high-temperature shocks that have been posited. Unlike the case of the Orion Nebula, where we have addressed this problem with fewer diagnostic filters, the geometry of NGC 6720 is ideally favorable for seeing these temperature variations and identifying their cause.;
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