NASA Selects 14 Investigations to Help Understand the Universe through Ultraviolet Light

                                             SOURCE IMG :science.nasa.gov

NASA has chosen 14 researchers from the United States to join the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT) science team. The selected ULTRASAT Participating Scientists from the United States will conduct scientific research that will contribute to Israel's first space telescope project, which is scheduled to launch into geostationary orbit around Earth in 2026. ROSES 2022: Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite Participating Scientists solicited proposals."The US scientific community responded to this opportunity with an excellent set of proposals, and we are very pleased to have a group studying such a wide variety of creative science," said James Rhoads, NASA Project Scientist for ULTRASAT.

ULTRASAT will be an ultraviolet (UV) observatory with a 204-square-degree field of vision, significantly greater than the other UV satellites currently in operation.. It will look into the mysteries of short-duration occurrences in the universe such tidal disruption events, supernova explosions, and neutron star mergers in binary systems.NASA and the Israel Space Agency (ISA) have agreed that NASA will launch the space telescope, provide the Flight Payload Adapter, and participate in the mission's science program. The NASA Participating Scientist program is the outcome of a collaboration between ISA and NASA, as well as an agreement between the ULTRASAT team and the Vera Rubin Observatory, both of which are supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. The Israeli Aerospace Industry, Elbit/Elop, DESY, and the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) have all collaborated on the mission's development.

"We welcome the NASA-selected scientists from the United States to the ULTRASAT science team."It is a significant addition to the cooperation, and we look forward to their contributions to the intriguing science that ULTRASAT will investigate," said Eli Waxman, ULTRASAT's chief investigator from Israel's Weizmann Institute14 investigators from 13 universities in ten states are among the US ULTRASAT Participating Scientists. Dr. Tahina Ramiaramanantsoa is one of these researchers, and she is a first-time principal investigator for a ROSES project. A total of $2 million will be provided in fiscal years 2023-2025, with a second round of Participating Scientists to be chosen competitively in 2026.

CONTENT SOURCE:https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/nasa-selects-14-investigations-to-help-understand-the-universe-through-ultraviolet-light