| All About the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer |
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The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) is a
NASA-funded astronomy mission operating in the
relatively unexplored extreme ultraviolet (70-760 Å) band.
The science payload, which has been designed and built at the
Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California,
Berkeley, under the direction of Dr. Roger F. Malina, consists
of three grazing incidence scanning telescopes and an extreme
ultraviolet (EUV)
spectrometer/deep survey instrument. The science payload
is attached to a Multi-Mission Modular spacecraft.
The EUVE mission, which launched
on June 7, 1992 on a Delta II rocket from
Cape Canaveral, is the culmination of nearly thirty years
of effort at the University of California at Berkeley
to create the field of EUV Astronomy. EUVE opens up
this last unexplored spectral window in astrophysics.
The first six months of the mission were dedicated to
mapping the EUV sky with the scanning telescopes. The
mission is now in the Guest Observer phase.
Science Goals
- Carry out an all-sky, all-band survey in the extreme
ultraviolet (70 -760 Å) in four bandpasses with an
angular resolution of 6 x 6 arc minutes with ~ 500 seconds
average exposure
- Carry out a deep survey in the EUV in two
bandpasses along the ecliptic
- Carry out pointed spectroscopy observations
identified by Guest Observers
- Identify the emission physics of EUV sources and
study of the ISM
- Probe whether compelling science can be done with
increased sensitivity
EUVE Mission
Phases
- Initial Operations and Check-out: During the first
month, the spacecraft and instruments were fully
checked and the instrument front covers were
opened (Completed).
- Sky Survey: The three scanning telescopes mapped
the entire sky in the EUV over a period of six
months (Completed). A Deep Survey was also performed during these six months
(Completed).
- Deep Survey/Spectroscopy: Guest Observers (GOs)
from around the world use the spectrometers and
deep survey instruments to investigate EUV
sources. The three scanners continue with
serendipitous observations throughout this phase
(Continuing).
- Extended Mission: Science, Testbed, Education
(Continuing).
For additional information on the technical aspects of the EUVE Mission (scanner design, bandpass of telescopes, astronomical objects detected to date, etc), please review the following resources:
- EUVE Guest Observer
Program Handbook
- The EUVE Electronic
Newsletter
- Journal of the British
Interplanetary Society: Special EUVE Edition
- Bibliography of Papers Using
EUVE Data
- The EUVE
Bright Source List (Malina et.al., Astron. J., 107
(2), 751, 1994)
- Serendipitous
EUV Sources Detected during the First Year of the Right Angle Program
(McDonald et.al., Astron. J., 108, 1843, 1994)
- The Second
EUVE Source Catalog (Bowyer et.al., ApJ Supp., 102,
129-160, 1996)
- All All-Sky
Catalog of Faint EUV Sources (Lampton et.al., ApJ Supp.,
108, 1997)
- The EUVE Stellar Spectral
Atlas (Craig et.al., ApJ Supp., 113, 1997)
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