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Launching in 2030, NASA’s UVEX mission will conduct a revolutionary all-sky ultraviolet survey, offering new insights into galaxy evolution, star explosions and cosmic events, and enriching our multiwavelength
Launching in 2030, NASA’s UVEX mission will conduct a revolutionary all-sky ultraviolet survey, offering new insights into galaxy evolution, star explosions and cosmic events, and enriching our multiwavelength understanding of the universe.
As NASA explores the unknowns in air and space, a new mission to study ultraviolet light in the sky will provide the agency with more information about how galaxies and stars evolve. The space telescope, called UVEX (UltraViolet EXplorer), is planned to be launched in 2030 as the next NASA Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission.
In addition to providing an extremely precise survey of the entire sky, UVEX will be able to rapidly locate ultraviolet light sources throughout the universe. This will allow it to capture the bursts that follow the gravitational wave bursts resulting from the merger of neutron stars. The telescope will also have an ultraviolet spectrograph to study stellar explosions and massive stars.
“NASA’s UVEX will help us better understand the nature of both near and distant galaxies and track dynamic events in our changing universe,” said Nicola Fox, Deputy Science Mission Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This mission will provide significant near- and far-ultraviolet capabilities to our fleet of space telescopes and provide rich research data that will open new ways to explore the mysteries of space.”
The telescope’s ultraviolet scan will complement data from other missions conducting extensive surveys this decade, including ESA’s Euclid mission with NASA and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in May 2027. Together, these missions will help create a modern multi-wavelength map of our universe.
“With the innovative new UVEX mission joining our portfolio, we will have a significant archive of data that will have long-term value for the scientific community,” said Mark Klempin, director of NASA Headquarters’ Astrophysics Division. “This new telescope will advance our understanding of the universe at different wavelengths and address one of the top priorities of modern astrophysics: the study of rapid changes in space.”
NASA selected the UVEX Medium Explorer concept for further development following detailed review of two Medium Explorer and two Opportunity Mission concepts by a team of scientists and engineers and an evaluation based on combining NASA’s existing astrophysics portfolio with available resources. . The UVEX mission has been selected for a two-year mission and will cost approximately $300 million, excluding launch costs.
The mission’s principal investigator is Fiona Harrison of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Other institutions participating in the mission include the University of California, Berkeley, Northrop Grumman and the Space Dynamics Laboratory.
The Explorers program is NASA’s oldest continuous program. The program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space through space science research conducted by principal investigators associated with the agency’s astrophysics and heliophysics programs.
Since the launch of Explorer 1 in 1958, which explored Earth’s radiation belts, the Explorers program has launched more than 90 missions, including the Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer missions, which earned its researchers the Nobel Prize. The program is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, part of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, which operates a wide range of Earth, space weather, solar system and universe research and science programs.
Source: Port Altele
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