 SEPTEMBER 26 • 2019 | 87

Weighing just about 350 
pounds, a new type of scientific 
satellite to be built in Israel will 
carry a telescope designed to 
observe the universe as it has not 
been seen before.
The ULTRASAT, projected to 
launch in 2023, will operate in 
an ultraviolet range of light, nor-
mally invisible to us, with a very 
large field of view.
“This unique configuration 
will help us answer some of the 
big questions in astrophysics,” 
said ULTRASAT principle inves-
tigator Professor Eli Waxman 
of the Weizmann Institute of 
Science in Rehovot.
Among those big questions 
are: How do dense neutron stars 
form and later merge and emit 
gravitational waves? How do 
supermassive black holes rule 

their neighborhoods? How do 
stars explode? Where do the 
heavy elements in the universe 
come from? What are the prop-
erties of stars that could have 
habitable planets?
The Weizmann Institute 
and the Israel Space Agency 
began working on the project 
in September. The German 
DESY Research Center of the 
Helmholtz Association pledged 
its support and cooperation 
for the initiative. Negotiations 
are also under way with other 
major space agencies to get 
ULTRASAT off the ground. The 
project is expected to cost some 
$70 million over a projected four 
years of detailed planning, con-
struction and launch.
The ULTRASAT spacecraft 
will be constructed by Israeli 

industries, “putting Israel — and 
Israeli scientists and engineers — 
at the forefront of a global move-
ment to explore the universe 
with small, affordable satellites,” 
said ISA Director Avi Blasberger.
“A small country – and a 
small satellite – can produce big 

results, even in exploring the 
wonders of distant outer space,” 
said Weizmann President Prof. 
Daniel Zajfman. 

First published on 
worldisraelnews.com.

New Israeli Satellite to Find 
Cosmic Blasts, Black Holes

Artist’
s concept shows a black 
hole with an accretion disk — a 
flat structure of material orbit-
ing the black hole — and a jet 
of hot plasma.

COURTESY NASA/JPL-CALTECH VIA ISRAEL21C

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