Over the past thirty years, NASA's Great Observatories—the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes—have revealed some amazing things about the universe. In addition to providing some of the deepest glimpses of the universe enabled by the Hubble Deep Fields campaign, these telescopes have provided glimpses into the invisible parts of the cosmos – that is, the infrared, gamma-ray and ultraviolet spectra. Because of the success of these observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA is considering future missions that would reveal even more of the “invisible universe.”
This includes the UltraViolet Explorer (UVEX), a space telescope that NASA plans to launch in 2030 as the next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission. In a recent study, a team led by researchers at the University of Michigan proposed another concept, known as the Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet universE (MAUVE). This telescope and its sophisticated instruments were designed during the first NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School. According to the team's paper, this mission would hypothetically be ready to launch by 2031.
The study was led by Mayura Balakrishnan, a graduate student in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. She was joined by researchers from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC), the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP), the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and European Space Agency (ESA), the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and several universities. The paper detailing their findings appeared in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of solar flares in the extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. Photo credit: NASA/SDO
Over the past fifty years, ultraviolet observatories have revolutionized our understanding of the universe. However, observations of astrophysical phenomena in the ultraviolet (UV) wavelength range are only possible at high altitudes or in space due to interference from the Earth's atmosphere, which absorbs UV radiation very efficiently. The co-author of the study, Dr. Emily Rickman, ESA astronomer and science operations scientist at STScI, told Universe Today via email:
“UV astronomy offers us insights into high-energy events that cannot be detected at other longer wavelengths, such as the visible or infrared wavelengths, and for which a much larger pool of facilities is available. Observation in the ultraviolet region has made significant advances in our understanding of the universe by studying star formation, galaxy formation, and high-energy events on planets in both our solar system and exoplanetary star systems.
“Some of the most notable areas of this understanding have been the detection of ultraviolet radiation from stellar winds emitted by young massive stars. This helps us figure out how such massive stars formed in the early universe.” On the planetary side, UV astronomy has allowed us to observe active aurorae at the poles of Jupiter and how these are influenced by solar storms on the Sun. These active auroras on Jupiter were unexpected and opened up a whole new understanding of the planets, their atmospheres and how they interact with their surroundings.”
The first UV satellite, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO 2), was launched in 1968, shortly before the highly anticipated launch of Apollo 8 (the first manned mission to the Moon). Among its many achievements, OAO 2 enabled the early characterization of the absorption of electromagnetic radiation by interstellar gas and dust (also known as interstellar extinction). This was followed by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), which launched in 1992 and conducted the first full-sky survey of far-UV sources.
Artist's impression of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Photo credit: NASA
Then came the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) in 1999, which conducted the first systemic studies of the intergalactic medium (IGM). Then there was the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which operated from 2003 to 2013 and conducted the deepest UV survey of the entire sky to date. There are also the ultraviolet and optical telescopes at the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the three UV instruments at the Hubble Space Telescope – the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Unfortunately, none of these detectors can probe the cosmos in the far and extreme ultraviolet wavelengths with the level of detail of a PI-guided mission. As Rickman noted, this and other factors have limited UV astronomy to date:
“One of the biggest limitations actually comes from the lack of facilities capable of observing in the UV wavelength range. Because UV observatories must be located in space because Earth's atmosphere blocks most UV radiation, these space-based UV observatories are significantly more expensive to build and operate than ground-based observatories.
“Due to the limited number of UV observatories, currently active observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope are overcrowded by astronomers around the world, indicating the need and importance of the existence of such observatories. In addition, the extreme UV wavelength is not currently detected by existing instruments, which represents a blind spot for some astronomical phenomena to be studied.”
While the planned Habitable World Observatory (HWO) is expected to have advanced UV capabilities, this mission is still in the early planning stages and is not expected to launch until the 2040s. To this end, the team proposed a UV space telescope concept called “Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet.”
universE (MAUVE), a wide-field spectrometer and imager designed during the inaugural NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School (AMDS) hosted by JPL in response to the announcement of the opportunity in 2023. As Rickman explained:
“The MAUVE mission concept focuses on three main themes in the context of the Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 Decadal Survey. These topics are “Are we alone?/Worlds and suns in context,” “How does the universe work?/New messengers and new physics,” and “How did we get here?/Cosmic ecosystem.” To answer the question “Are we alone?”, MAUVE aims to investigate sub-Neptune atmospheric escape, which is thought to be due to either photoevaporation or nuclear-driven mass loss. This will help us understand the habitability of the environment of extrasolar systems as well as the formation and evolution of exoplanets and their atmospheres.”
“In addition, MAUVE would study the atmospheric composition of hot gas on giant exoplanets and whether they are affected by equilibrium or nonequilibrium condensation, which is critical to understanding exoplanetary atmospheres and providing clues to where life might exist on them. “ Universe. To understand: “How does the universe work?”
“MAUVE would investigate whether blue kilonovae are driven by radioactive cooling or rapid shock cooling, which is fundamental to understanding explosive phenomena in the Universe, and would also investigate whether Type 1A supernovae arise from a white dwarf containing material from a companion star accumulates, or from …” merger of white dwarfs. And to investigate “How did we get here?” MAUVE would investigate whether diffuse extragalactic emissions come from faint galaxy cluster members and rogue stars or from shocks from cluster mergers.”
Conceptual vision of the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Image credit/©: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
These general themes, Rickman said, are important unanswered questions that astronomers are very interested in answering because they underpin our understanding of the universe. By expanding the wavelength range of existing UV observatories, MAUVE would be able to study the types of high-energy cosmological events that could answer some of these questions. Additionally, Rickman said, MAUVE would be allocated a significant portion (70%) of the General Observer's (GO) time:
“[This would allow] to the broader community to propose their observational ideas that could be studied in this largely unexplored parameter space, and answer fundamental questions such as “How do star-forming structures form and interact with the diffuse interstellar medium?”, “What are the most extreme stars and constellations?” “, “How do habitable environments emerge and evolve in the context of their planetary systems?”. The opportunity to explore these questions would provide fundamental insight into some of the building blocks of our understanding of the universe.”
Further reading: arXiv
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