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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