arXiv subjects

Susana E. Deustua

Publications and source records attributed to Susana E. Deustua.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Three-dimensional scene reconstruction using Roman slitless spectra

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will carry out a wide-field imaging and slitless spectroscopic survey of Type Ia Supernovae to improve our understanding of dark energy. Crucial to this endeavor is obtaining supernova spectra uncontaminated by light from their host galaxies. However, obtaining such spectra is made more difficult by the inherent problem in wide-field slitless spectroscopic surveys: the blending of spectra of close objects. The spectrum of a supernova will blend with the host galaxy, even from regions distant from the supernova on the sky. If not properly removed, this contamination will introduce systematic bias when the supernova spectra are later used to determine intrinsic supernova parameters and to infer the parameters of dark energy. To address this problem we developed an algorithm that makes use of the spectroscopic observations of the host galaxy at all available observatory roll angles to reconstruct a three-dimensional (3d; 2d spatial, 1d spectral) representation of the underlying host galaxy that accurately matches the 2d slitless spectrum of the host galaxy when projected to an arbitrary rotation angle. We call this ``scene reconstruction''. The projection of the reconstructed scene can be subtracted from an observation of a supernova to remove the contamination from the underlying host. Using simulated Roman data, we show that our method has extremely small systematic errors and significantly less random noise than if we subtracted a single perfectly aligned spectrum of the host obtained before or after the supernova was visible.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2022

A Multiwavelength view of IC 860: What Is in Action inside Quenching Galaxies

We present a multiwavelength study of IC 860, a nearby post-starburst galaxy at the early stage of transitioning from blue and star-forming to red and quiescent. Optical images reveal a galaxy-wide, dusty outflow originating from a compact core. We find evidence for a multiphase outflow in the molecular and neutral gas phase from the CO position-velocity diagram and NaD absorption features. We constrain the neutral mass outflow rate to be ~0.5 M$_{\odot}/$yr, and the total hydrogen mass outflow rate to be ~12 M$_{\odot}$/yr. Neither outflow component seems able to escape the galaxy. We also find evidence for a recent merger in the optical images, CO spatial distribution, and kinematics, and evidence for a buried AGN in the optical emission line ratios, mid-IR properties, and radio spectral shape. The depletion time of the molecular gas reservoir under the current star formation rate is ~7 Gyr, indicating that the galaxy could stay at the intermediate stage between the blue and red sequence for a long time. Thus the timescales for a significant decline in star formation rate ("quenching") and gas depletion are not necessarily the same. Our analysis supports the quenching picture where outflows help suppress star formation by disturbing rather than expelling the gas and shed light on possible ongoing activities in similar quenching galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Evaluating and Optimizing a Slitless Prism for Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope SN Cosmology

This work presents a set of studies addressing the use of the low-dispersion slitless prism on Roman for SN spectroscopy as part of the Roman High Latitude Time Domain Survey (HLTDS). We find SN spectral energy distributions including prism data carry more information than imaging alone at fixed total observing time, improving redshift measurements and sub-typing of SNe. The Roman field of view will typically include ~ 10 SNe Ia at observable redshifts at a range of phases (the multiplexing of host galaxies is much greater as they are always present), building up SN spectral time series without targeted observations. We show that fitting these time series extracts more information than stacking the data over all the phases, resulting in a large improvement in precision for SN Ia subclassification measurements. A prism on Roman thus significantly enhances scientific opportunities for the mission, and is particularly important for the Roman SN cosmology program to provide the systematics-controlled measurement that is a focus of the Roman dark energy mission. Optimizing the prism parameters, we conclude that the blue cutoff should be set as blue as the prism image quality allows (~ 7500A), the red cutoff should be set to ~ 18000A to minimize thermal background, and the two-pixel dispersion should be >~ 70.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

The James Webb Space Telescope Absolute Flux Calibration. I. Program Design and Calibrator Stars

It is critical for James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) science that instrumental units are converted to physical units. We detail the design of the JWST absolute flux calibration program that has the core goal of ensuring a robust flux calibration internal to and between all the science instruments for both point and extended source science. This program will observe a sample of calibration stars that have been extensively vetted based mainly on Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite observations. The program uses multiple stars of three different, well understood types (hot stars, A dwarfs, and solar analogs) to allow for the statistical (within a type) and systematic (between types) uncertainties to be quantified. The program explicitly includes observations to calibrate every instrument mode, further vet the set of calibration stars, measure the instrumental repeatability, measure the relative calibration between subarrays and full frame, and check the relative calibration between faint and bright stars. For photometry, we have set up our calibration to directly support both the convention based on the band average flux density and the convention based on the flux density at a fixed wavelength.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2021

Are all post-starbursts mergers? HST reveals hidden disturbances in the majority of PSBs

How do galaxies transform from blue, star-forming spirals to red, quiescent early-type galaxies? To answer this question, we analyzed a set of 26 gas-rich, shocked post-starburst galaxies with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging in B, I, and H bands, and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) i-band imaging of similar depth but lower resolution. We found that post-starbursts in our sample have intermediate morphologies between disk- and bulge-dominated (Sérsic n$=1.7^{+0.3}_{-0.0}$) and have red bulges, likely due to dust obscuration in the cores. Majority of galaxies in our sample are more morphologically disturbed than regular galaxies (88%, corresponding to >3$σ$ significance) when observed with HST, with asymmetry and Sérsic residual flux fraction being the most successful measures of disturbance. Most disturbances are undetected at the lower resolution of SDSS imaging. Although ~27% galaxies are clear merger remnants, we found that disturbances in another ~30% of the sample are internal, caused by small-scale perturbations or dust substructures rather than tidal features, and require high-resolution imaging to detect. We found a 2.8$σ$ evidence that asymmetry features fade on timescales ~200 Myr, and may vanish entirely after ~750 Myr, so we do not rule out a possible merger origin of all post-starbursts given that asymmetric features may have already faded. This work highlights the importance of small-scale disturbances, detected only in high-resolution imaging, in understanding structural evolution of transitioning galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Using Cosmic Rays detected by HST as Geophysical Markers I: Detection and Characterization of Cosmic Rays

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been operational for over 30 years and throughout that time it has been bombarded by high energy charged particles colloquially referred to as cosmic rays. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of more than 1.2 billion cosmic rays observed with HST using a custom written python package, \texttt{HSTcosmicrays}, that is available to the astronomical community. We analyzed $75,908$ dark calibration files taken as part of routine calibration programs for five different CCD imagers with operational coverage of Solar Cycle 23 and 24. We observe the expected modulation of galactic cosmic rays by solar activity. We model the observed energy-loss distributions to derive an estimate of 534 $\pm$ 117 MeV for the kinetic energy of the typical cosmic ray impacting HST. For the three imagers with the largest non-uniformity in thickness, we independently confirm the overall structure produced by fringing analyses by analyzing cosmic ray strikes across the detector field of view. We analyze STIS/CCD observations taken as HST crosses over the South Atlantic Anomaly and find a peak cosmic-ray particle flux of $\sim1100$ $particle/s/cm^2$. We find strong evidence for two spatially confined regions over North America and Australia that exhibit increased cosmic-ray particle fluxes at the $5σ$ level.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2019

Cool white dwarfs as standards for infrared observations

In the era of modern digital sky surveys, uncertainties in the flux of stellar standards are commonly the dominant systematic error in photometric calibration and can often affect the results of higher-level experiments. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectrophotometry, which is based on computed model atmospheres for three hot (Teff > 30,000 K) pure-hydrogen (DA) white dwarfs, is currently considered the most reliable and internally consistent flux calibration. However many next generation facilities (e.g. Harmoni on E-ELT, Euclid and JWST) will focus on IR observations, a regime in which white dwarf calibration has not yet been robustly tested. Cool DA white dwarfs have energy distributions that peak close to the optical or near-IR, do not have shortcomings from UV metal line blanketing, and have a reasonably large sky density ($\simeq$ 4 deg$^{-2}$ at G < 20), making them, potentially, excellent calibrators. Here we present a pilot study based on STIS+WFC3 observations of two bright DA white dwarfs to test whether targets cooler than current hot primary standards (Teff < 20,000 K) are consistent with the HST flux scale. We also test the robustness of white dwarf models in the IR regime from an X-shooter analysis of Paschen lines and by cross-matching our previously derived Gaia white dwarf catalogue with observations obtained with 2MASS, UKIDSS, VHS, and WISE.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

CALSPEC: WFC3 IR Grism Spectrophotometry

The collections of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in the \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} (HST) CALSPEC database are augmented by 19 IR SEDs from Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) IR grism spectra. Together, the two IR grisms, G102 and G141, cover the 0.8--1.7~\micron\ range with resolutions R=200 and 150, respectively. These new WFC3 SEDs overlap existing CALSPEC Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) standard star flux distributions at 0.8-1~\micron\ with agreement to $\lesssim$1\%. Some CALSPEC standards already have near-IR camera and multi-object spectrogragh (NICMOS) SEDs; but in their overlap region at 0.8--1.7~\micron, the WFC3 data have better wavelength accuracy, better spectral resolution, better repeatability, and, consequently, better flux distributions of $\sim$1\% accuracy in our CALSPEC absolute flux SEDs vs. $\sim$2\% for NICMOS. With the improved SEDs in the WFC3 range, the modeled extrapolations to 32~\micron\ for JWST flux standards begin to lose precision longward of the 1.7~\micron WFC3 limit, instead of at the 1.0~\micron\ long wavelength limit for STIS. For example, the extrapolated IR flux longward of 1.7~\micron\ for 1808347 increases by $\sim$1\% for the model fit to the data with WFC3, instead of just to the STIS SED alone.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2018

The Discovery of a Gravitationally Lensed Supernova Ia at Redshift 2.22

We present the discovery and measurements of a gravitationally lensed supernova (SN) behind the galaxy cluster MOO J1014+0038. Based on multi-band Hubble Space Telescope and Very Large Telescope (VLT) photometry of the supernova, and VLT spectroscopy of the host galaxy, we find a 97.5% probability that this SN is a SN Ia, and a 2.5% chance of a CC SN. Our typing algorithm combines the shape and color of the light curve with the expected rates of each SN type in the host galaxy. With a redshift of 2.2216, this is the highest redshift SN Ia discovered with a spectroscopic host-galaxy redshift. A further distinguishing feature is that the lensing cluster, at redshift 1.23, is the most distant to date to have an amplified SN. The SN lies in the middle of the color and light-curve shape distributions found at lower redshift, disfavoring strong evolution to z = 2.22. We estimate an amplification due to gravitational lensing of 2.8+0.6-0.5 (1.10 +- 0.23 mag)---compatible with the value estimated from the weak-lensing-derived mass and the mass-concentration relation from LambdaCDM simulations---making it the most amplified SN Ia discovered behind a galaxy cluster.

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arXiv2017

Active Cryovolcanism on Europa?

Evidence for plumes of water on Europa has previously been found using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using two different observing techniques. Roth et al. (2014) found line emission from the dissociation products of water. Sparks et al. (2016) found evidence for off-limb continuum absorption as Europa transited Jupiter. Here, we present a new transit observation of Europa that shows a second event at the same location as a previous plume candidate from Sparks et al. (2016), raising the possibility of a consistently active source of erupting material on Europa. This conclusion is bolstered by comparison with a nighttime thermal image from the Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR) which shows a thermal anomaly at the same location, within the uncertainties (Spencer et al. 1999). The anomaly has the highest observed brightness temperature on the Europa nightside. If heat flow from a subsurface liquid water reservoir causes the thermal anomaly, its depth is ~1.8-2 km, under simple modeling assumptions, consistent with scenarios in which a liquid water reservoir has formed within a thick ice shell. Models that favor thin regions within the ice shell that connect directly to the ocean, however, cannot be excluded, nor modifications to surface thermal inertia by subsurface activity. Alternatively, vapor deposition surrounding an active vent could increase the thermal inertia of the surface and cause the thermal anomaly. This candidate plume region may offer a promising location for an initial characterization of Europa's internal water and ice and for seeking evidence of Europa's habitability. ~

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2010

ACCESS: Enabling an Improved Flux Scale for Astrophysics

Improvements in the precision of the astrophysical flux scale are needed to answer fundamental scientific questions ranging from cosmology to stellar physics. The unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating was based upon the measurement of astrophysical standard candles that appeared fainter than expected. To characterize the underlying physical mechanism of the "Dark Energy" responsible for this phenomenon requires an improvement in the visible-NIR flux calibration of astrophysical sources to 1% precision. These improvements will also enable large surveys of white dwarf stars, e.g. GAIA, to advance stellar astrophysics by testing and providing constraints for the mass-radius relationship of these stars. ACCESS (Absolute Color Calibration Experiment for Standard Stars) is a rocket-borne payload that will enable the transfer of absolute laboratory detector standards from NIST to a network of stellar standards with a calibration accuracy of 1% and a spectral resolving power of R = 500 across the 0.35-1.7 micron bandpass. Among the strategies being employed to minimize calibration uncertainties are: (1) judicious selection of standard stars (previous calibration heritage, minimal spectral features, robust stellar atmosphere models), (2) execution of observations above the Earth's atmosphere (eliminates atmospheric contamination of the stellar spectrum), (3) a single optical path and detector (to minimize visible to NIR cross-calibration uncertainties), (4) establishment of an a priori error budget, (5) on-board monitoring of instrument performance, and (6) fitting stellar atmosphere models to the data to search for discrepancies and confirm performance.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2009

Photometric Calibrations for 21st Century Science

The answers to fundamental science questions in astrophysics, ranging from the history of the expansion of the universe to the sizes of nearby stars, hinge on our ability to make precise measurements of diverse astronomical objects. As our knowledge of the underlying physics of objects improves along with advances in detectors and instrumentation, the limits on our capability to extract science from measurements is set, not by our lack of understanding of the nature of these objects, but rather by the most mundane of all issues: the precision with which we can calibrate observations in physical units. We stress the need for a program to improve upon and expand the current networks of spectrophotometrically calibrated stars to provide precise calibration with an accuracy of equal to and better than 1% in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared portions of the spectrum, with excellent sky coverage and large dynamic range.

astro-ph.CO↗