About EUVE

• EUVE Science Payload and Instrumentation (EUVE Guest Observer Program Handbook Chapter2) * (PS file)

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 a 4th telescope with a 3 channel extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrometer and deep survey imager. 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).

• EUVE Slide Show
• Pictures from EUVE
• NASA's Explorer Program
• The History Behind EUVE
• The Launch of EUVE
• EUVE Science Highlights

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 (at Berkeley):

• EUVE Bibliographies, Documents, & Publications

Page created and last modified (1/8/98) at CEA and brought to MAST 10/15/98.