by Ann » Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:23 pm
Chris said:
There is news all the time about UV astronomy. GALEX, HST, and Swift all regularly return UV images
Chris, thanks for pointing out that the Swift telescope does ultraviolet astronomy on top of it X-ray and gamma ray mission. I had somehow missed its UV work, and I enjoyed exploring the Swift homepage. However, while very valuable, I get the impression that Swift's ultraviolet work is somewhat limited. Much of what could be found on Swift's homepage was artists' impressions rather than actual images made by Swift. Many of the real images that were shown were ultraviolet images of supernovae. This is supremely interesting, but again, somewhat limited. Personally I think that ultraviolet images of galaxies are the most interesting, but the Swift gallery has few such images to offer. The best I could find was an ultraviolet portrait of Andromeda. A sample of galaxies was presented with too little information for me to understand what I was being shown - the galaxies were not identified, and the key term, "BAT Luminosity", was not explained. So all in all, I really did learn new things from the Swift homepage, but I must say that Swift does not seem to be anything even remotely like a cornucopia of ultraviolet images.
As for HST, it is indeed true that it can do ultraviolet astronomy, which I personally appreciate very much indeed. I think, however, that Hubble is limited to doing near ultraviolet astronomy, as far ultraviolet astronomy is beyond it.
Also, as for HST, there are no more plans to repair it, so when it stops working we will no longer get any UV images from it. And Hubble's replacement, the James Webb Telescope, will not be able to do ultraviolet astronomy at all.
As for GALEX, I myself have very much enjoyed the images it has produced. I have particularly liked its gallery of galaxy images, but GALEX has imaged all kinds of targets and has done some great science, in my opinion. Now, however, its far ultraviolet detector has broken down, and it is limited to working with its near ultraviolet detector. It is down to the same capacity as the HST, in other words, and can no longer complement that telescope. When GALEX breaks down completely, I don't think it is going to be replaced, or at least I have heard nothing to that effect.
So I still think that ultraviolet astronomy is not getting nearly as much attention as it deserves. For example, is there anything at all like an all sky ultraviolet survey in the process?
Ann
Chris said:
[quote]There is news all the time about UV astronomy. GALEX, HST, and Swift all regularly return UV images[/quote]
Chris, thanks for pointing out that the Swift telescope does ultraviolet astronomy on top of it X-ray and gamma ray mission. I had somehow missed its UV work, and I enjoyed exploring the Swift homepage. However, while very valuable, I get the impression that Swift's ultraviolet work is somewhat limited. Much of what could be found on Swift's homepage was artists' impressions rather than actual images made by Swift. Many of the real images that were shown were ultraviolet images of supernovae. This is supremely interesting, but again, somewhat limited. Personally I think that ultraviolet images of galaxies are the most interesting, but the Swift gallery has few such images to offer. The best I could find was an ultraviolet portrait of Andromeda. A sample of galaxies was presented with too little information for me to understand what I was being shown - the galaxies were not identified, and the key term, "BAT Luminosity", was not explained. So all in all, I really did learn new things from the Swift homepage, but I must say that Swift does not seem to be anything even remotely like a cornucopia of ultraviolet images.
As for HST, it is indeed true that it can do ultraviolet astronomy, which I personally appreciate very much indeed. I think, however, that Hubble is limited to doing near ultraviolet astronomy, as far ultraviolet astronomy is beyond it.
Also, as for HST, there are no more plans to repair it, so when it stops working we will no longer get any UV images from it. And Hubble's replacement, the James Webb Telescope, will not be able to do ultraviolet astronomy at all.
As for GALEX, I myself have very much enjoyed the images it has produced. I have particularly liked its gallery of galaxy images, but GALEX has imaged all kinds of targets and has done some great science, in my opinion. Now, however, its far ultraviolet detector has broken down, and it is limited to working with its near ultraviolet detector. It is down to the same capacity as the HST, in other words, and can no longer complement that telescope. When GALEX breaks down completely, I don't think it is going to be replaced, or at least I have heard nothing to that effect.
So I still think that ultraviolet astronomy is not getting nearly as much attention as it deserves. For example, is there anything at all like an all sky ultraviolet survey in the process?
Ann