Space Astronomy

The field of ultraviolet astronomy offers unequalled scientific promise yet has not been blessed with a multitude of space missions (as has been the case for other spectral domains). This book contains a distillation of the community¿s views on the topic and the desires for future observational facilities. As such, it provides the most up-to-date information on the topic of ultraviolet astronomy from a very broad point of view, presenting a compilation of lectures given at a specialist meeting and combining theoretical arguments with observational reports and detailed instrumental information.

Foreword.- Summary of the First NUVA Conference Space Astronomy: the UV Window to the Universe.- The Ultraviolet sky surveys: filling the gap in our view of the Universe.- Observations of the near and far ultraviolet background.- Studying hot gas using the ultraviolet: High ions in galactic halos.- Metal-line system survey: characterizing the low-redshift IGM.- Local Lyman ? emitters and their relevance to high-redshift star-forming galaxies.- Reionization: characteristic scales, topology and observability.- The ultraviolet morphology of evolved populations.- Young circumnuclear disks in elliptical galaxies.- On some prospects of UV observatories for studies of galaxies-IGM mass exchange.- The starburst-AGN connection: the role of stellar clusters in AGNs.- Active galactic nuclei in the ultraviolet.- Galactic dynamos and galactic winds.- Two-dimensional properties of nearby galaxies.- Solving the mysteries of the diffuse interstellar medium with high-resolution UV spectroscopy.- O VI in the local interstellar medium.- The formation of planetary disks and winds: an ultraviolet view.- MHD simulations of accretion disks and jets: strengths and limitations.- Magnetic activity optimal tracers: from radio to X-ray; the relevance of UV astronomy.- The dynamic magnetic quiet Sun: physical mechanisms and UV signature.- General Relativity studies through X-ray spectroscopy of the Fe (and others) K ? fluorescent lines.- UV observations of Cataclysmic Variables.- Colliding winds in symbiotics.- Very peculiar wind from BD+53°2790, the optical counterpart to 4U 2206+54.- Outflows from massive blue stars.- AGB star intershell abundances inferred from UV spectra of extremely hot post-AGB stars.- An introduction to the dark energy problem.- Ultraviolet SN observations with Swift.- Optical and UV monitor (OM) on-board XMM-Newton.- The cosmic origins spectrograph: capabilities and prelaunch performance.- WSO-UV¿ultraviolet mission for the next decade.- WSO/UV spectrographs: the expected performance of HIRDES.- The Field Camera Unit of the WSO/UV telescope.- The Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope: a view of today and tomorrow.- Exotic UV astronomy.- The Stellar Imager (SI) project: a deep space UV/Optical Interferometer (UVOI) to observe the Universe at 0.1 milli-arcsec angular resolution.- The Fresnel interferometric imager.- Stellar and galactic environment survey (SAGE).- CCD cameras and Spacewire interfaces for HERSCHEL/SCORE suborbital mission.- Novel narrow filters for imaging in the 50¿150 nm VUV range.- The current and future capabilities of MCP based UV detectors.- Dedication to Willem Wamsteker.- Willem Wamsteker (1942¿2005).- FUV spectroscopy of the central star of the planetary nebula Sh?2¿216.