A space telescope is set to lift off in 2030 as part of a two-year NASA mission aimed at surveying ultraviolet light to gain more information on how stars and galaxies evolve.
The UltraViolet EXplorer telescope, a.k.a. the UVEX, will be equipped with an ultraviolet spectrograph to study massive stars and stellar explosions and is expected to support data from other missions, including NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Euclid mission led by the European Space Agency, NASA said Tuesday.
“NASA’s UVEX will help us better understand the nature of both nearby and distant galaxies, as well as follow up on dynamic events in our changing universe,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“This mission will bring key capabilities in near-and far-ultraviolet light to our fleet of space telescopes, delivering a wealth of survey data that will open new avenues in exploring the secrets of the cosmos,” added Fox.
UVEX is NASA’s next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission and is expected to cost about $300 million.
Fiona Harrison of Caltech serves as the UVEX mission’s principal investigator. Northrop Grumman, Space Dynamics Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, are also involved in the mission.
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