An HST Wide Field Survey of the Galactic Bulge: Overview, Strategy, and First Results
Sean K. Terry, Jay Anderson, Charles A. Beichman, David P. Bennett, Aparna Bhattacharya + 11 more
TLDR
An HST survey maps the Galactic Bulge, creating a high-resolution legacy dataset and aiding future Roman exoplanet characterization.
Key contributions
- Presents an HST wide-field imaging survey covering 1.1 sq. degrees of the Galactic Bulge.
- Provides high-resolution data to enhance Roman's exoplanet characterization and create a legacy dataset.
- Utilizes coordinated-parallel imaging with HST's WFC3 and ACS cameras in F606W and F814W passbands.
- Outlines the survey's strategy, observing techniques, and initial findings from Cycles 32 and 33.
Why it matters
This survey establishes a crucial high-resolution baseline for the Galactic Bulge, significantly boosting the capabilities of the upcoming Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey. It provides an invaluable legacy dataset for studying stellar populations, dynamics, and exoplanets in our galaxy's center.
Original Abstract
We present an HST imaging survey of a 1.1 sq. degree sky area toward the Milky Way Galactic Bulge. This field significantly overlaps with the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey (GBTDS). High angular resolution imaging of this area with HST before the start of the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey (RGES) will greatly strengthen Roman's ability to characterize detected exoplanet systems, as well as provide a rich and wide-field archive for use as a legacy dataset toward the Galactic Bulge for the broader community. We conduct coordinated-parallel imaging with both wide-field cameras on HST, Wide-field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), utilizing the F606W and F814W passbands. Approximately 70% of the survey was conducted during HST Cycle 32, with the remaining 30% conducted during Cycle 33. In this paper, the first in a series, we give a general overview of the program and the observing strategy, and present early results. This campaign secures HST's lasting impact on the high-precision study of stellar populations, dynamics, exoplanet systems, interstellar extinction, metallicities, cluster associations, and more toward the center of our Galaxy.
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