The M 4 Core Project with HST: I. Overview and first epoch

Abstract

We present an overview of the ongoing Hubble Space Telescope large program GO-12911. The program is focused on the core of M 4, the nearest Galactic globular cluster, and the observations are designed to constrain the number of binaries with massive companions (black holes, neutron stars, or white dwarfs) by measuring the "wobble" of the luminous (mainsequence) companion around the center of mass of the pair, with an astrometric precision of ∼50 μas. The high spatial resolution and stable medium-band PSFs of WFC3/UVIS will make these measurements possible. In this work we describe (i) the motivation behind this study, (ii) our observing strategy, (iii) the many other investigations enabled by this unique data set, and which of those our team is conducting, and (iv) a preliminary reduction of the first-epoch dataset collected on 2012 October 10. Show more