A new mission to survey ultraviolet light across the entire sky will provide NASA with more information about how galaxies and stars evolve. The space telescope, called UVEX (UltraViolet EXplorer), is expected to launch in 2030 as NASA's next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission.
In addition to performing a highly sensitive all-sky survey, UVEX will be able to quickly point to sources of ultraviolet light in the universe. This will allow it to capture the explosions that follow bursts of gravitational waves caused by neutron star mergers. The telescope will also carry an ultraviolet spectrograph to study stellar explosions and massive stars.
“NASA’s UVEX will help us better understand the nature of galaxies near and far, as well as track dynamic events in our changing universe”, said Nicola Fox, associate 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 research data that will open new avenues for exploring the secrets of the cosmos.”
The telescope's ultraviolet survey will complement data from other missions, including the Euclid mission - led by ESA (European Space Agency) with contributions from NASA and NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - scheduled to launch in May 2027. Together, these missions will help create a modern, multi-wavelength map of our universe.
“With the new and innovative UVEX mission ing our portfolio, we will gain an important archive of data that will be of lasting value to the scientific community”, said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “This new telescope will contribute to our understanding of the universe at multiple wavelengths and address one of the top priorities in astrophysics today: studying fleeting changes in the cosmos.”
Choosing UVEX
NASA selected the UVEX Medium-Class Explorer concept for continued development after detailed review of two Medium-Class Explorer and two Mission of Opportunity concept proposals by a of scientists and engineers. After that, the project still underwent an evaluation based on NASA's current astrophysics portfolio, along with available resources.
Therefore, UVEX was selected for a two-year mission and will cost approximately US$300 million, not including launch costs. In this sense, the project's principal investigator is Fiona Harrison at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Other institutions involved in the mission include the University of California at Berkeley, Northrop Grumman and the Space Dynamics Laboratory.
The Explorers Program is NASA's oldest ongoing program and is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using leading space science investigations led by investigators relevant to the astrophysics and heliophysics the agency.
Since the launch of Explorer 1 (1958), which discovered Earth's radiation belts, the Explorers Program has launched more than 90 missions, including the Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer missions that led to Nobel Prizes for its investigators. Thus, the program is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for the Science Mission Directorate, which carries out a wide variety of scientific research and exploration programs for studies of Earth, space weather, the solar system and the universe.
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