The galaxy evolution explorer

Christopher Martin, Tom Barlow, William Barnhart, Luciana Bianchi, Brian Blakkolb, Dominique Bruno, Joe Bushman, Yong Ik Byun, Mike Chiville, Tim Conrow, Brian Cooke, Jose Donas, James Fanson, Karl Forster, Peter G. Friedman, Robert Grange, Dave Griffiths, Tim Heckman, James Jee, Patrick JelinskySugwhan Kim, Siu Chun Lee, Young Wook Lee, Dankai Liu, Barry Madore, Roger Malina, Alan Mazer, Ryan McLean, Bruno Milliard, William Mitchell, Marco Morais, Patrick Morrissey, Sue Neff, Frederic Raison, David Randall, Mike Rich, David Schiminovich, Wesley Schmitigal, Amit Sen, Oswald Siegmund, Todd Small, Joe Stock, Frank Surber, Alex Szalay, Arthur Vaughan, Tim Weigand, Barry Welsh, Patrick Wu, Ted Wyder, C. Kevin Xu, Jenny Zsoldas

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA Small Explorer Mission planned for launch in Fall 2002, will perform the first Space Ultraviolet sky survey. Five imaging surveys in each of two bands (1350-1750 Å and 1750-2800Å) will range from an all-sky survey (limit mAB∼20-21) to an ultra-deep survey of 4 square degrees (limit mAB∼26). Three spectroscopic grism surveys (R=100-300) will be performed with various depths (mAB∼20-25) and sky coverage (100 to 2 square degrees) over the 1350-2800 Å band. The instrument includes a 50 modified Ritchey-Chrétien telescope, a dichroic beam splitter and astigmatism corrector, two large sealed tube microchannel plate detectors to simultaneously cover the two bands and the 1.2 degree field of view. A rotating wheel provides either imaging or grism spectroscopy with transmitting optics. We will use the measured UV properties of local galaxies, along with corollary observations, to calibrate the UV-global star formation rate relationship in galaxies. We will apply this calibration to distant galaxies discovered in the deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys to map the history of star formation in the universe over the red shift range zero to two. The GALEX mission will include an Associate Investigator program for additional observations and supporting data analysis. This will support a wide variety of investigations made possible by the first UV sky survey.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)336-350
Number of pages15
JournalProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume4854
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2002
EventFuture EUV/UV and Visible Space Astrophysics Missions and Instrumentation - Waikoloa, HI, United States
Duration: 2002 Aug 222002 Aug 23

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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