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The Ultraviolet Type Ia Supernova CubeSat (UVIa): Science Motivation & Mission Concept
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The Ultraviolet Type Ia Supernova CubeSat (UVIa): Science Motivation & Mission Concept

Keri Hoadley, Curtis McCully, Gillian Kyne, Fernando Cruz Aguirre, Moira Andrews, Christophe Basset, K. Azalee Bostroem, Peter J Brown, Greyson Davis, Erika T Hamden, …
ArXiV.org
Cornell University
02/17/2025
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2502.11957
url
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2502.11957View
Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

The Ultraviolet (UV) Type Ia Supernova CubeSat (UVIa) is a CubeSat/SmallSat mission concept that stands to test critical space-borne UV technology for future missions like the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) while elucidating long-standing questions about the explosion mechanisms of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). UVIa will observe whether any SNe Ia emit excess UV light shortly after explosion to test progenitor/explosion models and provide follow-up over many days to characterize their UV and optical flux variations over time, assembling a comprehensive multi-band UV and optical low-redshift anchor sample for upcoming high-redshift SNe Ia surveys (e.g., Euclid, Vera Rubin Observatory, Nancy Roman Space Telescope). UVIa's mission profile requires it to perform rapid and frequent visits to newly discovered SNe Ia, simultaneously observing each SNe Ia in two UV bands (FUV: 1500-1800A and NUV: 1800-2400A) and one optical band (u-band: 3000-4200A). In this study, we describe the UVIa mission concept science motivation, mission design, and key technology development.
Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

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