Ruben Sanchez-Janssen (UKATC), Cyrielle Opitom (University of Edinburgh), Matt Nicholl (Queen's University Belfast), Ryan Cooke (Durham University)

The UV and near-UV wavelength range is key for exploring the origin of our universe and all its components, providing a wealth of diagnostic features critical for the study of solar system objects, stellar astrophysics, transient phenomena, galactic formation and evolution, or cosmology.

The next generation of ultra-sensitive UV missions or instruments, for which the UK astronomical community has shown a strong interest, are currently under design. This includes CUBES, a forthcoming spectrograph to be installed at the Cassegrain focus of one of the VLTs in 2027, covering the near-UV wavelength range (300 - 400 nm) at intermediate-high spectral resolution (R~20,000) with high efficiency. 

The UK is a keypartner in CUBES, for both science and hardware. CUBES will provide access to over 30 iron-peak and heavy elements in stellar spectra and will also be instrumental for extragalactic observations, including cosmology, the circumgalactic medium of galaxies in the redshift range 1.5 < z < 2.8, and to infer the relative contributions of different types of galaxies/AGN to the cosmic UV background, among others.

The UK community has also shown a strong interest in joining the CASTOR mission. CASTOR is a Canadian-led space mission that will provide high-resolution imaging and low/intermediate resolution multi-object spectroscopy in the UV/optical spectral region (150-550 nm) over an instantaneous 0.25 deg2 field of view. CASTOR will provide a unique combination of sensitivity and wide field of view together with Hubble-like image quality. UK scientists are actively participating in the development of several key science cases (from solar system science to cosmology and transients), and negotiations are ongoing with the UK Space Agency for the UK to join the mission as full partners.

This meeting will focus on breakthrough science that will be enabled by these future UV facilities. It will provide an opportunity for the community to gather and share current developments regarding future UV missions and instruments, discuss UK involvement, synergies with other facilities such as Euclid and LSST, and enable crucial discussions to align the science being developed for these upcoming instruments to the UK strategic priorities. The meeting will also focus on discussing the longer term future of UV astronomy, including for example NASA’s LUVOIR telescope.