The scientific payload of the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT)

Sagi Ben-Ami; Yossi Shvartzvald; Eli Waxman; Udi Netzer; Yoram Yaniv; Viktor M. Algranatti; Avishay Gal-Yam; Ofer Lapid; Eran Ofek; Jeremy Topaz; Iair Arcavi; Arooj Asif; Shlomi Azaria; Eran Bahalul; Merlin F. Barschke; Benjamin Bastian-Querner; David Berge; Vlad D. Berlea; Rolf Buehler; Louise Dittmar; Anatoly Gelman; Gianluca Giavitto; Or Guttman; Juan M. Haces Crespo; Daniel Heilbrunn; Arik Kachergincky; Nirmal Kaipachery; Marek Kowalski; Shrinivasrao R. Kulkarni; Shashank Kumar; Daniel Küsters; Tuvia Liran; Yonit Miron-Salomon; Zohar Mor; Aharon Nir; Gadi Nitzan; Sebastian Philipp; Andrea Porelli; Ilan Sagiv; Julian Schliwinski; Tuvia Sprecher; Nicola De Simone; Nir Stern; Nicholas C. Stone; Benny Trakhtenbrot; Mikhail Vasilev; Jason J. Watson; Francesco Zappon

doi:10.1117/12.2629850

31 August 2022 The scientific payload of the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT)

Sagi Ben-Ami, Yossi Shvartzvald, Eli Waxman, Udi Netzer, Yoram Yaniv, Viktor M. Algranatti, Avishay Gal-Yam, Ofer Lapid, Eran Ofek, Jeremy Topaz, Iair Arcavi, Arooj Asif, Shlomi Azaria, Eran Bahalul, Merlin F. Barschke, Benjamin Bastian-Querner, David Berge, Vlad D. Berlea, Rolf Buehler, Louise Dittmar, Anatoly Gelman, Gianluca Giavitto, Or Guttman, Juan M. Haces Crespo, Daniel Heilbrunn, Arik Kachergincky, Nirmal Kaipachery, Marek Kowalski, Shrinivasrao R. Kulkarni, Shashank Kumar, Daniel Küsters, Tuvia Liran, Yonit Miron-Salomon, Zohar Mor, Aharon Nir, Gadi Nitzan, Sebastian Philipp, Andrea Porelli, Ilan Sagiv, Julian Schliwinski, Tuvia Sprecher, Nicola De Simone, Nir Stern, Nicholas C. Stone, Benny Trakhtenbrot, Mikhail Vasilev, Jason J. Watson, Francesco Zappon

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 1218105 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629850
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

The Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT) is a space-borne near UV telescope with an unprecedented large field of view (200 deg² ). The mission, led by the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Israel Space Agency in collaboration with DESY (Helmholtz association, Germany) and NASA (USA), is fully funded and expected to be launched to a geostationary transfer orbit in Q2/Q3 of 2025. With a grasp 300 times larger than GALEX, the most sensitive UV satellite to date, ULTRASAT will revolutionize our understanding of the hot transient universe, as well as of flaring galactic sources. We describe the mission payload, the optical design and the choice of materials allowing us to achieve a point spread function of ∼ 10 arcsec across the FoV, and the detector assembly. We detail the mitigation techniques implemented to suppress out-of-band flux and reduce stray light, detector properties including measured quantum efficiency of scout (prototype) detectors, and expected performance (limiting magnitude) for various objects.

Conference Presentation

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Sagi Ben-Ami, Yossi Shvartzvald, Eli Waxman, Udi Netzer, Yoram Yaniv, Viktor M. Algranatti, Avishay Gal-Yam, Ofer Lapid, Eran Ofek, Jeremy Topaz, Iair Arcavi, Arooj Asif, Shlomi Azaria, Eran Bahalul, Merlin F. Barschke, Benjamin Bastian-Querner, David Berge, Vlad D. Berlea, Rolf Buehler, Louise Dittmar, Anatoly Gelman, Gianluca Giavitto, Or Guttman, Juan M. Haces Crespo, Daniel Heilbrunn, Arik Kachergincky, Nirmal Kaipachery, Marek Kowalski, Shrinivasrao R. Kulkarni, Shashank Kumar, Daniel Küsters, Tuvia Liran, Yonit Miron-Salomon, Zohar Mor, Aharon Nir, Gadi Nitzan, Sebastian Philipp, Andrea Porelli, Ilan Sagiv, Julian Schliwinski, Tuvia Sprecher, Nicola De Simone, Nir Stern, Nicholas C. Stone, Benny Trakhtenbrot, Mikhail Vasilev, Jason J. Watson, and Francesco Zappon "The scientific payload of the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT)", Proc. SPIE 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 1218105 (31 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629850

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