Division B WG UV Astronomy

Description

In the rich context of upcoming powerful facilities at IR, Optical, ... wavelengths, we believe it is extremely important to maintain access to space-UV capabilities. Such facilities are fundamental for many aspects of astronomical research such as planetary and exoplanetary-astrobiological research, or intergalactic medium and galaxy formation studies, to mention but a few. The current scenario does not ensure the future existence of such capabilities; the end of the Hubble mission is going to leave a gap that needs rapid action to be filled in. The main rationale behind these difficulties is the cost of ultraviolet technologies that requires sharing expenses among many actors and hence, a strong international coordination.

UVA-WG has been created to tie together the international science with specific missions, which may or not involve multiple space agencies. There are disparate groups which together, within the framework of the UVA-WG, would be able to catalyse new missions and models to advance UV science, a field which has contributed greatly to many areas of astronomy.

UVA-WG has three major lines of activity:

Basic science. Large investments are being done world-wide to address key problems like the origin of life, the formation and characteristics of exoplanets, the chemical enrichment of galaxies and intergalactic medium and the properties of the large scale gravitational field pervading the Universe.
This activity will address:
- The identification of the key science issues requiring access to the UV range in coordination with the existing facilities in other spectral ranges.
- To act as leading scientific body to supervise the trade-off process during the definition of the road-map
Technical developments: There are several areas requiring technological developments more prominently research on coatings and detectors that permit efficient and accurate multiwavelength studies. Development of complex, light and robust optical elements is also required. The group will work on novel technologies such as diffraction-based imagers (such as the Fresnel Imager) or in the proposal for Lunar-based facilities. The tasks addressed by this group will be:
- to provide an updated information of the current status of the technology in the different areas of expertise and provide
- To act as leading technological body during the definition of the road-map
Definition of the road map. This task is the core activity of the network. It will receive the inputs from basic science and technological developments, together with additional inputs from community groups, national Agencies and the rest of the Astronomy Facilities (through the Division B activities) to define a realistic work-map.