UVEX moves into construction for an ultraviolet map of the sky
NASA’s commitment to launch UVEX by 2031 allows the Caltech-led mission to move into construction. The planned telescope combines deep ultraviolet maps of the entire sky with rapid observations of stellar explosions and neutron-star mergers. Faint nearby galaxies are another target, extending the surveys now carried out in visible and infrared light.
Science··Midday
NASA’s commitment opens the construction phase
UVEX, the Ultraviolet Explorer space telescope led by the California Institute of Technology, is moving into construction following NASA’s commitment to launch the mission by 2031.[1], [2]
The planned observatory will map the entire sky deeply in ultraviolet light and turn rapidly toward changing cosmic events. The commitment was announced on 27 October.[1]
Fiona Harrison is the mission’s principal investigator. The University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory manages UVEX, with Caltech and Berkeley developing its instrument. Aerospace company Northrop Grumman will build the spacecraft. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will provide key detector technology, while Caltech’s astrophysics data centre IPAC will process and archive the observations.[1]
Ultraviolet light will reveal faint galaxies
Faint nearby small galaxies are a major target. They can resemble distant galaxies in visible-light images, whereas ultraviolet observations help distinguish them. UVEX will complement surveys in visible and infrared wavelengths, capturing a different view of stellar populations. The mission team also plans to search for hot blue stripped stars, whose hydrogen-rich outer layers have been removed by companion stars. Repeated wide-area scans will look for characteristic changes in their ultraviolet light.[1]
Rapid pointing will follow short-lived explosions
The telescope is designed to respond within hours to astronomical alerts, including signals from merging neutron stars and supernovae. Its spectroscopy will split light into wavelengths to reveal the composition of ejected matter and its outward speed. These observations are intended to capture explosions early, while their light is changing quickly.[1]
UVEX follows the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or GALEX, which surveyed ultraviolet light between 2003 and 2013. The team targets up to 100 times its sensitivity, a design expectation awaiting flight validation. Its detectors adapt complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor imaging technology, also used in ordinary cameras, for ultraviolet wavelengths. Specialized filters and coatings form part of the detector development work supporting that planned capability.[1]
Caltech, SRI International, a research organization, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are jointly developing the ultraviolet detectors. Filters and coatings tailor the silicon sensors to the wavelengths the mission will observe, building on the laboratory’s long-running detector research.[1]
